The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.

They did not know what we can now guess at, contemplating the course of history: that change begins in the soul before it appears in ordinary existence.

They're talking about things of which they don't have the slightest understanding, anyway. It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.

It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.

People keep themselves at a tolerable height above an infernal abyss toward which they gravitate only by putting out all their strength and lovingly helping one another. They are tied together by ropes, and it's bad enough when the ropes around an individual loosen and he drops somewhat lower than the others into empty space; ghastly when the ropes break and he falls. That's why we should cling to the others.

There they lay, but not in the forgetfulness of the previous night. She was seeking and he was seeking, they raged and contorted their faces and bored their heads into each others bosom in the urgency of seeking something, and their embraces and their tossing limbs did not avail to make them forget, but only reminded them of what they sought