For what is man without desires, without free will, and without the power of choice but a stop in an organ pipe?

After all, I quite naturally want to live in order to fulfill my whole capacity for living, and not in order to fulfill my reasoning capacity alone, which is no more than some one-twentieth of my capacity for living. What does reason know? It knows only what it has managed to learn (and it may never learn anything else; that isn't very reassuring, but why not admit it?), while human nature acts as a complete entity, with all that is in it, consciously or unconsciously; and though it may be wrong, it's nevertheless alive.

When he has lost all hope, all object in life, man becomes a monster in his misery.

One must first learn to live oneself before one blames others.

You can't be angry with me, because I am a hundred times more severely punished than you, if only by the fact that I shall never see you again.

I have no self-respect. But can a man of acute sensibility respect himself at all?

There were moments when I hated everybody I came across, innocent or guilty, and looked at them as thieves who were robbing me of my life with impunity. The most unbearable misfortune is when you yourself become unjust, malignant, vile; you realize it, you even reproach yourself - but you just can't help it.