"Love conquers all," Aphrodite promised. "Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?"

"Beauty is the only human aspect which cannot be captured on any canvas howsoever hard an artist tries. At the most, the undaunted artist can replicate the beauty on paper but what is a replica in comparison to the original! The humbling resemblance can only be respected, not truly adored.

There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.....the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.

I've seen you, beauty, and you belong to me now, whoever you are waiting for and if I never see you again, I thought. You belong to me and all Paris belongs to me and I belong to this notebook and this pencil.

To the people who love you, you are beautiful already. This is not because they're blind to your shortcomings but because they so clearly see your soul. Your shortcomings then dim by comparison. The people who care about you are willing to let you be imperfect and beautiful, too. (20)

It scares me how hard it is to remember life before you. I can't even make the comparisons anymore, because my memories of that time have all the depth of a photograph. It seems foolish to play games of better and worse. It's simply a matter of is and is no longer.

I love you,' Buttercup said. 'I know this must come as something of a surprise to you, since all I've ever done is scorn you and degrade you and taunt you, but I have loved you for several hours now, and every second, more. I thought an hour ago that I loved you more than any woman has ever loved a man, but a half hour after that I knew that what I felt before was nothing compared to what I felt then. But ten minutes after that, I understood that my previous love was a puddle compared to the high seas before a storm. Your eyes are like that, did you know? Well they are. How many minutes ago was I? Twenty? Had I brought my feelings up to then? It doesn't matter.' Buttercup still could not look at him. The sun was rising behind her now; she could feel the heat on her back, and it gave her courage. 'I love you so much more now than twenty minutes ago that there cannot be comparison. I love you so much more now then when you opened your hovel door, there cannot be comparison. There is no room in my body for anything but you. My arms love you, my ears adore you, my knees shake with blind affection. My mind begs you to ask it something so it can obey. Do you want me to follow you for the rest of your days? I will do that. Do you want me to crawl? I will crawl. I will be quiet for you or sing for you, or if you are hungry, let me bring you food, or if you have thirst and nothing will quench it but Arabian wine, I will go to Araby, even though it is across the world, and bring a bottle back for your lunch. Anything there is that I can do for you, I will do for you; anything there is that I cannot do, I will learn to do. I know I cannot compete with the Countess in skills or wisdom or appeal, and I saw the way she looked at you. And I saw the way you looked at her. But remember, please, that she is old and has other interests, while I am seventeen and for me there is only you. Dearest Westley--I've never called you that before, have I?--Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley, Westley,--darling Westley, adored Westley, sweet perfect Westley, whisper that I have a chance to win your love.' And with that, she dared the bravest thing she'd ever done; she looked right into his eyes.

I carry my own film guys with me now. People think that's a huge expense but with technology like it is these days it's not. You can film videos and everything with a Canon Mark II and shoot a movie. They're doing it for next to nothing by comparison. I can do ten videos for a project for the price of one mainstream video in the past.

We had maybe the greatest success of any company that I know of in Paris and after two or three years I wanted to do this same number that we did for PBS so we did it and Paris had always considered us their darlings.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment a household of children if things go reasonably well certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

Suicide moreover was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?

The Athanasian Creed is to me light and intelligible reading in comparison with much that now passes for science.

When I was in Paris all of the German refugees began to flow in and it was a very sad time.

Intolerance respecting other people's religion is toleration itself in comparison with intolerance respecting other people's art.

Now we occupy a lowly position both in space and rank in comparison with the heavenly sphere and the Almighty is Most High not in space but with respect to absolute existence greatness and power.

I was in Paris at an English-language bookstore. I picked up a volume of Dickinson's poetry. I came back to my hotel read 2 000 of her poems and immediately began composing in my head. I wrote down the melodies even before I got to a piano.

I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn't that I wanted to become an expatriate or just never come back I needed some breathing room. I'd already been translating French poetry I'd been to Paris once before and liked it very much and so I just went.

These seem to me so ambiguous so vague so easily misunderstood in comparison to genuine music which fills the soul with a thousand things better than words.

Now if you are like me - if you are like practically anybody in America - then you probably hold some negative opinions about the French based upon movies rumors recent headlines unfortunate run-ins with Parisian waiters or... you know... all that unpleasantness surrounding the Vichy regime.

It was so quiet that morning in Paris that the heels of my two companions and myself were loud on the deserted pavements. It was a city of shuttered shops and barred windows and deserted avenues.

I'd skip school regularly to see movies - even in the morning in the small Parisian theaters that opened early.

In fact my mom always told me because I was the daughter of an Army officer born overseas in Paris France that under the Constitution she believed that I could never run for president.

I don't know why but the older I get the more interested I get in my parents' marriage. And it's interesting to be married yourself too because there is an inevitable comparison.

Marriage of attraction is a gamble anyway so you might as well marry into a family that is similar to your own and make that much less of an adjustment. But the 'love marriage' as it is called is equally common in India now. But it would be interesting to do a comparison of what would work better. Marriage is hard work and it is a gamble.