“Against the disease of writing one must take special precautions, since it is a dangerous and contagious disease.”

“The most important choices we make in life are not the dramatic turning points such as a change of career, the person we marry, the country we emigrate to. The most important choices are the thoughts and feelings we choose to entertain, moment after moment, day after day. They shape our lives more surely than any outward circumstance. So why not opt for an experience of blessing – of blessing life moment after moment? After all, each moment is the repository of infinite possibilities, ever renewed.Pierre Pradervand, The Gentle Art of Blessing”

“[About Pierre de Fermat] It cannot be denied that he has had many exceptional ideas, and that he is a highly intelligent man. For my part, however, I have always been taught to take a broad overview of things, in order to be able to deduce from them general rules, which might be applicable elsewhere.”

“If life is a punishment, one should wish for an end; if life is a test, one should wish it to be short.”

“On awakening, bless the day, for it is already full of unseen good which your blessing will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and awaiting each and all.To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal beauty, hidden to material eyes. It is to activate the law of attraction which for the furthest reaches of the universe will bring into your life exactly what you need to experience and enjoy.”

“sometimes you have to dismantle your life to find your passion.”

“To Pierre," said Mr. Buckmaster, "the Communists are of the Right. The far Right. He refers to them as 'those goddamned Bourbons.' Pierre is an anarchist. That's why he's so happy in his shoplifting--he feels it helps undermine the state.”

“In ocean of tears, the heart of stone sinks. (Dans l'océan de larmes, - Le coeur de pierre donc coule.)”

“If Pierre Bon-Bon had his failings--and what great man has not a thousand?--if Pierre Bon-Bon, I say, had his failings, they were failings of very little importance--faults indeed which, in other tempers, have often been looked upon rather in the light of virtues.”

“One who has lost confidence can lose nothing more.”

“Life was like a jigsaw, but if you tried to fit the pieces together yourself, you generally got them wrong. Pierre had money; she needed money. Pierre was lovable and loved her; she would marry him. She had thought that was the pattern the pieces made. But it had been like trying to force two pieces together that didn't fit, and then, suddenly, the jigsaw had been done, in quite a different way, by other hands.”