The greatest cause of evil included all human motives in one giant paradox. Good and bad were so inextricably mixed that we couldn't make them out; bad seemed to lead to good, and good motives led to bad. The paradox is that evil comes from man's urge to heroic victory over evil.

Man cannot endure his own littleness unless he can translate it into meaningfulness on the largest possible level.

Man is literally split in two: he has an awareness of his own splendid uniqueness in that he sticks out of nature with a towering majesty, and yet he goes back into the ground a few feet in order blindly and dumbly to rot and disappear forever.

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

Love is the problem of an animal who must find life, create a dialogue with nature in order to experience his own being.

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

Obviously, all religions fall far short of their own ideals.