The man of knowledge in our time is bowed down under a burden he never imagined he would ever have: the overproduction of truth that cannot be consumed.

People create the reality they need in order to discover themselves

To live is to play at the meaning of life...The upshot of this . . . is that it teaches us once and for all that childlike foolishness is the calling of mature men.

To live fully is to live with an awareness of the rumble of terror that underlies everything.

It is fateful and ironic how the lie we need in order to live dooms us to a life that is never really ours.

Why would a person prefer the accusations of guilt, unworthiness, ineptitude — even dishonor and betrayal — to real possibility? This may not seem to be the choice, but it is: complete self-effacement, surrender to the “others,” disavowal of any personal dignity or freedom — on the one hand; and freedom and independence, movement away from the others, extrication of oneself from the binding links of family and social duties-on the other hand. This is the choice that the depressed person actually faces.

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.