It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death. (1 April 1939)

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please…

I was one of those who was very happy when the original prohibition amendment passed. I thought innocently that a law in this country would automatically be co…

A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is bo…

'Your novel has been read,' Woland began, turning to the master, 'and the only thing said about it was that, unfortunately, it is not finished. So, then, I wan…

'Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it ... It really is w…

Only in his poetry did he have the courage to love.