Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not read more

Nothing is poorer than a truth expressed as it was thought. Committed to writing in such cases, it is not even a bad photograph. Truth wants to be startled abruptly, at one stroke, from her self-immersion, whether by uproar, music or cries for help.

Understanding brings control.

Understanding brings control.

Love cures people, both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.

Love cures people, both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.

Compassion has no place in the natural order of the world which operates on the basis of necessity. Compassion opposes read more

Compassion has no place in the natural order of the world which operates on the basis of necessity. Compassion opposes this order and is therefore best thought of as being in some way supernatural.

I started out with nothing. I still have most of it.

I started out with nothing. I still have most of it.

You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her.

You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her.

Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit, to become delightful happiness must be tainted with poison.

Pleasure only starts once the worm has got into the fruit, to become delightful happiness must be tainted with poison.

The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.

The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.

It's not till sex has died out between a man and a woman that they can really love. And now read more

It's not till sex has died out between a man and a woman that they can really love. And now I mean affection. Now I mean to be fond of (as one is fond of oneself) --to hope, to be disappointed, to live inside the other heart. When I look back on the pain of sex, the love like a wild fox so ready to bite, the antagonism that sits like a twin beside love, and contrast it with affection, so deeply unrepeatable, of two people who have lived a life together (and of whom one must die) it's the affection I find richer. It's that I would have again. Not all those doubtful rainbow colors.