Giovanni's Room

a real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named—but

People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness,

the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.

It became terribly old and at the same time absolutely, helplessly young.

Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford and you are not that young anymore.”

Perhaps he is a fool and a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both.