In normal times all of us know, whether consciously or not, that there is no love which can't be bettered; nevertheless, we reconcile ourselves more or less easily to the fact that ours has never risen above the average.

The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.

My dear friend, we mustn't give them even the slightest excuse to judge us! Otherwise, we end up in pieces.

...the play of the toughest and most lucid mind are at the same time both lavished andsquandered.

That must be wonderful; I have no idea of what it means.

The danger of lectures is that they create the illusion of teaching for teachers, and the illusion of learning for learners.

What is a firm hand to me, of what use to me is this astonishing power if I cannot change the order of things, if I cannot make the sun set in the east, that suffering diminish and that beings no longer die?