If the literature we are reading does not wake us, why then do we read it? A literary work must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.

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

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.

To every instant there is a correspondence in something outside time. This world here and now cannot be followed by a Beyond, for the Beyond is eternal, hence it cannot be in temporal contact with this world here and now.

My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.

I am more uncertain than I ever was; I feel only the power of life. And I am senselessly empty.

April 27. Incapable of living with people, of speaking. Complete immersion in myself, thinking of myself. Apathetic, witless, fearful. I have nothing to say to anyone - never.