May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms.

So then you’re free?’ ‘Yes, I’m free,’ said Karl, and nothing seemed more worthless than his freedom.

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

There is a down-and-outness under true knowledge and a childlike happy arising from it.

I stand on the end platform of the tram and am completely unsure of my footing in this world, in this town, in my family. Not even casually could I indicate any claims that I might rightly advance in any direction. I have not even any defense to offer for standing on this platform, holding on to this strap, letting myself be carried along by this tram, nor for the people who give way to the tram or walk quietly along or stand gazing into shop windows. Nobody asks me to put up a defense, indeed, but that is irrelevant.

A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light.