We can remember minutely and precisely only the things which never really happened to us.

Nothing comes easily. My work smells of sweat.

How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.

The beginning of thought is in disagreement - not only with others but also with ourselves.

Man's chief goal in life is still to become and stay human, and defend his achievements against the encroachment of nature.

By all odds, earliest man, so naked to the elements and to deadly enemies, should have existed in a state of constant shock. We find him instead the only lighthearted being in a deadly serious universe.... He alone, with childish carelessness, tinkered and played, and exerted himself more in the pursuit of superfluities than of necessities. Yet the tinkering and playing, and the fascination with the nonessential, were a chief source of the inventiveness which enabled man to prevail over better-equipped and more-purposeful animals.

Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear. Thus a feeling of utter unworthiness can be a source of courage.