There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.

Leop­ards break in­to the tem­ple and drink all the sac­ri­fi­cial ves­sels dry; it keeps hap­pen­ing; in the end, it can be cal­cu­lat­ed in ad­vance and is in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the rit­ual.

Nothing, you know, gives the body greater satisfaction than ordering people about, or at least believing in one's ability to do so.

And so gentlemen, I learned. Oh, if you have to learn, you learn; if you’re desperate for a way out, you learn; you learn pitilessly. You stand over yourself with a whip in your hand; if there’s the least resistance, you lash yourself.

I answer one of your letters, then lie in bed in apparent calm, but my heart beats through my entire body and is conscious only of you. I belong to you; there is really no other way of expressing it, and that is not strong enough.

The man in ecstasy and the man drowning: both raise their arms.

Tyranny or slavery, born of selfishness, are the two educational methods of parents; all gradations of tyranny or slavery.