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.

Never mind a little dirt, if the goal is splendid!

It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?

I could not become anything; neither good nor bad; neither a scoundrel nor an honest man; neither a hero nor an insect. And now I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything, that only a fool can become something.

I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind.

I feel pity for him, and that is a poor sign of love.

The meanest and most hateful thing about money is that it even gives one talent.