The artist takes in the world, but instead of being oppressed by it, he reworks it in his own personality and recreates it in the work of art.

Relationship is thus always slavery of a kind, which leaves a residue of guilt.

What does it mean to be a self-conscious animal? The idea is ludicrous, if it is not monstrous. It means to know that one is food for worms. This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consiousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression and with all this yet to die. It seems like a hoax, which is why one type of cultural man rebels openly against the idea of God. What kind of deity would crate such a complex and fancy worm food?

War is a sociological safety valve that cleverly diverts popular hatred for the ruling classes into a happy occasion to mutilate or kill foreign enemies.

One of the main reasons that it is so easy to march men off to war is that each of them feels sorry for the man next to him who will die.

Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing.

Genuine heroism for man is still the power to support contradictions, no matter how glaring or hopeless they may seem.