The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.

Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one’s own castle.

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

Every one of us has a bad conscience, which he tries to escape by going to sleep as quickly as possible.

Like tired dogs they stand there, because they use up all their strength in remaining upright in one's memory.

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.