It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.

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The past attracts me, the present frightens me, because the future is death.

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You've never lived until you've almost died. For those who have fought for it, life has a flavor the protected shall never know.

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Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

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Words dazzle and deceive because they are mimed by the face. But black words on a white page are the soul laid bare.

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Abstinence is the worst form of perversion.

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A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

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Whether we are describing a king, an assassin, a thief, an honest man, a prostitute, a nun, a young girl, or a stallholder in a market, it is always ourselves that we are describing.

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Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.

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A lawful kiss is never worth as much as a stolen one.

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