"And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days."

"Greatly begin. Though thou have time, but for a line, be that sublime. Not failure, but low aim is crime."

"Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed."

"A weed is no more than a flower in disguise, Which is seen through at once, if love give a man eyes."

"For me, writing a novel is more like digging a well than climbing a mountain - some heroic thing where I set out to conquer. I just sit quietly for a few years, and then it starts to become something."

"A life without philosophical reflection is a vessel adrift on an uncharted sea — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"The greatest deception is forgetting that the river of time shapes the stones of destiny."

"Happiness is the natural flower of duty."