When young we are faithful to individuals, when older we grow loyal to situations and to types.

Beneath a mask of selfish tranquility nothing exists except bitterness and boredom. I am one of those whom suffering has made empty and frivolous: each night in my dreams I pull the scab off a wound; each day, vacuous and habit-ridden, I help it re-form.

A mistake which is commonly made about neurotics is to suppose that they are interesting. It is not interesting to be always unhappy, engrossed with oneself, malignant and ungrateful, and never quite in touch with reality.

The greatest problem with women is how to contrive that they should seem our equals

There cannot be a personal God without a pessimistic religion. As soon as there is a personal God he is a disappointing God.

We may assume that we keep people waiting symbolically because we do not wish to see them and that our anxiety is due not to being late, but to having to see them at all.

The worst vice of the solitary is the worship of his food.