Giulia

“He needed her so badly, to reassure himself of his
own existence, that he never comprehended the desperation in her dazzling, permanent smile, the terror in the brightness with which she faced the world, or the reasons why she hid when she couldn't manage to beam... every moment she
spent in the world was full of panic, so she smiled and smiled and maybe once a week she locked the door and shook and felt like a husk, like an empty peanut-shell, a monkey without a nut.”
― Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses

“There’s no one here who is worthy of such words!’ Aglaya burst out. ‘None of them, none of them here are worthy of your little finger, nor your heart! You are more honourable than them all, nobler than them all, better than them all, kinder than them all, cleverer than them all! There are people here who are unworthy to bend down and pick up the handkerchief you’ve dropped… Why do you humiliate yourself and make yourself lower than them all? Why have you twisted everything in yourself, why is there no pride in you?”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

“When you set sail for Ithaca,
wish for the road to be long,
full of adventures, full of knowledge.”
― C.P. Cavafy

“Viaggiare è nascere e morire in ogni momento. Forse, nella più vaga regione della sua mente, faceva accostamenti tra quei mutevoli orizzonti e l'esistenza umana. Tutte le cose della vita sono continuamente in fuga davanti a noi. Gli ottenebramenti e le luci si frammischiano: dopo un abbagliamento, un'eclisse; si guarda, ci si affretta, si tendono le mani per afferrare ciò che passa; ogni evento è una svolta della strada; e d'un tratto si è vecchi.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables