I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.

Torment yourself as little as possible, then you'll torment me less.

Everything is deception: seeking the minimum of illusion, keeping within the ordinary limitations, seeking the maximum. In the first case one cheats the Good, by trying to make it too easy for oneself to get it, and the Evil by imposing all too unfavorable conditions of warfare on it. In the second case one cheats the Good by keeping as aloof from it as possible, and the Evil by hoping to make it powerless through intensifying it to the utmost.

The delights of this life are not its own, but our fear of the ascent into a higher life; the torments of this life are not its own, but our self-torment because of that fear.

I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.

Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

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