No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.

I'm astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing; it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will's surrender. I begin because I don't have the strength to think; I finish because I don't have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.

The Gods sell when they give. Glory is paid for with disgrace. Poor are the happy, for they are Just what passes.

Attention to detail and a perfectionist instinct, far from stimulating action, are character qualities that lead to renunciation. Better to dream than to be.

Never read a book to the end, nor even in sequence and without skipping.

I seek and don’t find myself. I belong to chrysanthemum hours, neatly lined up in flowerpots.

Yes, talking to people makes me sleepy.