In descriptions of Nature one must seize on small details, grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a picture. For instance, you'll have a moonlit night if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle glittered like a bright little star, and that the black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled past like a ball.

It's easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.

If I were asked to chose between execution and life in prison I would, of course, chose the latter. It's better to live somehow than not at all.

The unhappy are egotistical, base, unjust, cruel, and even less capable of understanding one another than are idiots. Unhappinessdoes not unite people, but separates them.

Once a man gets a fixed idea, there's nothing to be done.

If I wanted to order a ring for myself, the inscription I should choose would be: "Nothing passes away." I believe that nothing passes away without leaving a trace, and that every step we take, however small, has significance for our present and our future existence.

No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand... Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.