If even dying is to be made a social function, then, grant me the favor of sneaking out on tiptoe without disturbing the party.

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer.

In the last analysis, it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions that life puts to us.

Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.

It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy - from lack of character.

It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.

It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.

Life only demands from you the strength that you possess. Only one feat is possible; not to run away.

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.

Maturity - among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.

It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.

I believe that we should die with decency so that at least decency will survive.

I am the vessel. The draft is God's. And God is the thirsty one.

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.