I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.

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You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.

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Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.

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This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.

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I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.

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The only thing I know is this: I am full of wounds and still standing on my feet.

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A man needs a little madness, or else... he never dares cut the rope and be free.

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I said to the almond tree, 'Sister, speak to me of God.' And the almond tree blossomed.

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If a woman sleeps alone it puts a shame on all men. God has a very big heart, but there is one sin He will not forgive. If a woman calls a man to her bed and he will not go.

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For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.

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