The notion of the infinite expanse and copiousness of the cosmos is the result of the mixture, carried to the extreme limit, of laborious creation and free self-determination.

. . . The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of someone we love more than ourselves, that make us feel as though we were on the verge of suicide, or lost in a forest remote from all human habitation-a book should serve as an axe for the frozen sea within us.

The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving.

There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.

Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible, but that alone doesn't make it true.

I have hardly anything in common with myself and should stand very quietly in a corner, content that I can breathe.

What is written is merely the dregs of experience.