I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on t… - Thornton Wilder

The most valuable thing I inherited was a temperament that does not revolt against Necessity and that is constantly renewed in Hope.

People are meant to go through life two by two. ’Tain’t natural to be lonesome.

Cesar is not a philosophical man. His life has been one long flight from reflection. At least he is clever enough not to expose the poverty of his general ideas; he never permits the conversation to move toward philosophical principles. Men of his type so dread all deliberation that they glory in the practice of the instantaneous decision. They think they are saving themselves from irresolution; in reality they are sparing themselves the contemplation of all the consequences of their acts. Moreover, in this way they can rejoice in the illusion of never having made a mistake; for act follows so swiftly on act that it is impossible to reconstruct the past and say that an alternative decision would have been better. They can pretend that every act was forced on them under emergency and that every decision was mothered by necessity