“All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them!”

Chapters: 56. One with the Dust

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“An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’ Which of us was right, boss?”

Chapters: 22. Heaven's Door

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“Dame Hortense, you remind me of Sarah Bernhardt… when she was young. I didn't expect to find such elegance, such grace and courtesy, such beauty, in this wild place. What Shakespeare was it sent you here amongst the barbarians?”

Chapters:

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“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all … is not to have one.”

Chapters: 41. Distilled Life

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“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model, the longer the tether of our slavery?”

Chapters: 65. Simplicity: the Hidden Power of Goodness

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“I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.”

Chapters: 26. The Still Rule the Restless

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“the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”

Chapters: 25. The Mother of All Things

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“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition.”

Chapters: 20. Unconventional Mind

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“Trouble? Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and look for trouble.”

Chapters:

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“Two equally steep and bold paths may lead to the same peak. To act as if death did not exist, or to act thinking every minute of death, is perhaps the same thing.”

Chapters: 15. Inscrutability

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“When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream?”

Chapters: 13. Honor and Disgrace

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