Whereas I formerly believed it to be my bounden duty to call other persons to order, I now admit that I need calling to order myself.

What we lack is intensity of life.

A book of mine is always a matter of fate. There is something unpredictable about the process of writing, and I cannot prescribe for myself any predetermined course.

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

An understanding heart is everything in a teacher, and cannot be esteemed highly enough.

Whenever justice is uncertain and police spying and terror are at work, human beings fall into isolation, which, of course, is the aim and purpose of the dictator state, since it is based on the greatest possible accumulation of depotentiated social units.

The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows it to realize its supreme purpose through him.