I’ll never know, and neither will you, of the life you don’t choose. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore.
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
There is a place in the heart that will never be filled; a space. And even during the best moments, and the greatest times, we will know it.
The death of a beloved is an amputation.
The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.
Nobody loves you when you’re down and out.
I have spent many days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.
Now I have neither happiness nor unhappiness. Everything passes. That is the one and only thing that I have thought resembled a truth in the society of human beings where I have dwelled up to now as in a burning hell. Everything passes.
Even those who never frown eventually break down.
The most common form of despair is not being who you are.
The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss – an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. – is sure to be noticed.
Later that night, I held an atlas on my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world, and whispered, ‘where does it hurt?’ It answered, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed, Everybody knows that the war is over, Everybody knows the good guys lost.
That’s what life is about: People come and go.
The mirror is my best friend because when I cry it never laughs.
Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.
Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all.
I’m strong on the outside, not all the way through. I’ve never been perfect, but neither have you.
Those who are heartless, once cared too much.
The saddest thing in life is wasted talent, and the choices you make will shape your life forever.