Retirement accords with the tone of my mind: I will not descend to a world I despise.

A mans profundity may keep him from opening on a first interview, and his caution on a second; but I should suspect his emptiness if he carried on his reserve to a third.

To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment, which excludes the ability to experience happiness.

By keeping men off, you keep them on.

Reserve is an artificial quality that is developed in most of us but as the result of innumerable rebuffs.

The main motive for "non-attachment" is a desire to escape from the pain of living, and above all from love, which, sexual or non-sexual, is hard work.

If a man makes me keep my distance, the comfort is, he keeps his at the same time.

For an impenetrable shield, stand inside yourself.