There are, first of all, two kinds of authors: those who write for the subject's sake, and those who write for writing's sake. ... The truth is that when an author begins to write for the sake of covering paper, he is cheating the reader; because he writes under the pretext that he has something to say.

We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

A high degree of intellect tends to make a man unsocial.

There is not a grain of dust, not an atom that can become nothing, yet man believes that death is the annhilation of his being.

The heavy armor becomes the light dress of childhood; the pain is brief, the joy unending.

There is in the world only the choice between loneliness and vulgarity. All young people should be taught now to put up with loneliness ... because the less man is compelled to come into contact with others, the better off he is.