It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.

I usually solve problems by letting them devour me.

So eager are our people to obliterate the present.

I am too tired, I must try to rest and sleep, otherwise I am lost in every respect. What an effort to keep alive! Erecting a monument does not require an expenditure of so much strength.

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

Nervous states of the worst sort control me without pause. Everything that is not literature bores me and I hate it. I lack all aptitude for family life except, at best, as an observer. I have no family feeling and visitors make me almost feel as though I were maliciously being attacked.

Writing [is] a form of prayer.