From outside one will always triumphantly impress theories upon the world and then fall straight into the ditch one has dug, but only from inside will one keep oneself and the world quiet and true.

Human judgment of human actions is true and void , that is to say, first true and then void.... The judgment of the word is true, the judgment in itself is void.... Only he who is a party can really judge, but as a party he cannot judge. Hence it follows that there is no possibility of judgment in the world, only a glimmer of it.

The limited circle is pure.

It would have been so pointless to kill himself that, even if he had wanted to, the pointlessness would have made him unable.

Some deny the existence of misery by pointing to the sun; he denies the existence of the sun by pointing to misery.

We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.

It's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves.