The world stands on absurdities, and without them perhaps nothing at all would happen.

One must love life before loving its meaning ... yes, and when the love of life disappears, no meaning can console us.

Your hand is cold, mine burns like fire. How blind you are, Nastenka!

It is precisely that requirement of shared worship that has been the principal source of suffering for individual man and the human race since the beginning of history. In their efforts to impose universal worship, men have unsheathed their swords and killed one another. They have invented gods and challenged each other: "Discard your gods and worship mine or I will destroy both your gods and you!"

It was a marvelous night, the sort of night one only experiences when one is young. The sky was so bright, and there were so many stars that, gazing upward, one couldn't help wondering how so many whimsical, wicked people could live under such a sky.

It is man's unique privilege, among all other organisms. By pursuing falsehood you will arrive at the truth!

We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.