Utterance does not in principle mean a weakening of conviction--that would not be anything to be deplored--but a weakness of conviction.

A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it.

No one can crave what truly harms him.

The truth is always an abyss.

He is a free and secure citizen of the world because he is on a chain that is long enough to allow him access to all parts of the earth, and yet not so long that he could be swept over the edge of it.

I never imagined that so many days would ultimately make such a small life.

My job is unbearable to me because it conflicts with my only desire and my only calling, which is literature. Since I am nothing but literature and can and want to be nothing else, my job will never take possession of me, it may, however, shatter me completely, and this is by no means a remote possibility.