“Love is a striking example of how little reality means to us.”

“Now there is one thing I can tell you: you will enjoy certain pleasures you would not fathom now. When you still had your mother you often thought of the days when you would have her no longer. Now...”

“My destination is no longer a place, rather a new way of seeing.”

“People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura oflife which bears no relation to true immortality but through which theycontinue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as...”

“One says the things which one feels the need to say, and which the other will not understand: one speaks for oneself alone.”

“We needed germans in Paris to hear Wagner.”

“It was not that Madame Santeuil's moral values had altered, but only her view of the moral values of others.”

“Understanding comes hard to persons of high rank who are accustomed to phony lifestyles that involve no daily work.”

“Creation and destruction are the two ends of the same moment. And everything between the creation and the next destruction is the journey of life.”

“But understanding will always require some effort. You probably wouldn't admire a friend who was good at everything if it cost her no effort.”