We have convictions only if we have studied nothing thoroughly.

We are born to exist, not to know, to be, not to assert ourselves.

What is that one crucifixion compared to the daily kind any insomniac endures?

I live only because it is in my power to die when I choose to: without the idea of suicide, I'd have killed myself right away.

Only one endowed with restless vitality is susceptible to pessimism. You become a pessimist-a demonic, elemental, bestial pessimist-only when life has been defeated many times in its fight against depression.

A marvel that has nothing to offer, democracy is at once a nation's paradise and its tomb.

In order to have the stuff of a tyrant, a certain mental derangement is necessary.