The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.

The visionary disciplines himself to see the world always as if he had only just seen it for the first time.

I've always believed that a writer has got to remain an outsider.

The "passion for incredulity" can produce as much self-deception as the uncritical will to believe.

Man is the only animal who is prone to insanity.

The self-surmounter can never put up with the man who has ceased to be dissatisfied with himself.

It seemed perfectly possible that, in spite of my certainty of my own genius, I might die of some illness, or perhaps even in a street accident, before I had ever glimpsed the meaning of life. My moods of happiness and self-confidence convinced me that I had a "destiny" to become a famous writer, and to be remembered as one of the most important thinkers of the century.