All would have transformed us if we had the courage to be what we are. - Marguerite Yourcenar

Leisure moments: each life well regulated has some such intervals, and he who cannot make way for them does not know how to live.

Ho compreso che ben pochi realizzano se stessi prima di morire: e ho giudicato con maggiore pietà le loro opere interrotte.

...and I reminded myself that the reproach of intellectualism is often directed at the most sensitive natures, those most ardently alive, those obliged by their frailty or their excess of strength constantly to resort to the arduous disciplines of the mind.