One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few."

"I understand why the saints were rarely married women. It has primarily to do with distractions . . . Woman's normal occupations run counter to creative life, or contemplative life or saintly life."

"We tend not to choose the unknown, which might be a shock or a disappointment or simply a little difficult to cope with. An yet it is the unknown with all its disappointments and surprises that is the most enriching."

Only when a tree has fallen can you take a measure of it. It is the same with a man.

"If one talks to more than four people it is an audience, and one cannot really think or exchange thoughts with an audience."