From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.

I need solitude for my writing; not 'like a hermit' - that wouldn't be enough - but like a dead man.

Officials are highly educated but one-sided; in his own department an official can grasp whole trains of thought from a single word, but let him have something from another department explained to him ... he won't understand a word of it.

He is a free and secure citizen of the world because he is on a chain that is long enough to allow him access to all parts of the earth, and yet not so long that he could be swept over the edge of it.

If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.

Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.