My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude.

Isn't it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?

I know that the most joy in my life has come to me from my violin.

O, Youth: Do you know that yours is not the first generation to yearn for a life full of beauty and freedom?

I soon learned to scent out that which was able to lead to fundamentals and to turn aside from everything else, from the multitude of things which clutter up the mind and divert it from the essential.

I have tried 99 times and have failed, but on the 100th time came success.

One should not pursue goals that are easily achieved. One must develop an instinct for what one can just barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts.