“Much that for us is fraught with with happiness or misery, remains almost unnoticed by the rest of the world.”

“Without inquiring too deeply into the causes which make it possible to find subjects of gaiety always close at hand, the proof of that possibility can be found in the fact that persons of sensitive...”

“All the while that Jean was listening to him, he was vaguely conscious that what gives literature its reality is the result of work accomplished by the human spirit, no matter what the material fac...”

“When Jean and his mother left Etreuilles, Monsieur Sureau had gathered for them great boxfuls of hawthorn and of snowballs which Madame Santeuil had not the courage to refuse. But, as soon as Jean'...”

“Sadness had reigned in undisputed sovereignty over his shadowed childhood.”

“This book of mine has not been manufactured: it has been garnered.”

“I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination.”

“Nature: it might be the magical key to unlock a locked imagination.”

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”

“After all these months, lying there, unable to move a leg or a foot how could he find perfection in such an average day?Then I realized that was the whole point.”

“After all these months, lying there, unable to move a leg or a foot – how could he find perfection in such an average day?Then I realized that was the whole point.”