The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.

I am more uncertain than I ever was; I feel only the power of life. And I am senselessly empty.

In a certain sense you deny the existence of this world. You explain life as a state of rest, a state of rest in motion.

I can love only what I can place so high above me that I cannot reach it.

The founder brought the laws from the lawgiver; the faithful are meant to announce the laws to the lawgiver.

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.

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?