Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often — and in my inmost self perhaps all the time — I doubt whether I am a human being.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

We need the books that affect us like a disaster

If all responsibility is imposed on you, then you may want to exploit the moment and want to be overwhelmed by the responsibility;yet if you try, you will notice that nothing was imposed on you, but that you are yourself this responsibility.

I have spent my life resisting the desire to end it.

We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.

Simply wait, be quiet, still The world will freely offer itself to you.