Everyone carries a room about inside him. This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing. If someone walks fast and one pricks up one’s ears and listens, say in the night, when everything round about is quiet, one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall.

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?

It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.

Writing is a sweet, wonderful reward.

The worries that are the burden of which the privileged person makes an excuse in dealing with the oppressed person are in fact the worries about preserving his privileged condition.

By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.

I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.