The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . .

To be shocked at how deeply rejection hurts is to ignore what acceptance involves. We must never allow our suffering to be compounded by suggestions that there is something odd in suffering so deeply. There would be something amiss if we didn't.

That I could clamber to the frozen moon. And draw the ladder after me.

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else's head instead of with one's own.