Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.

A single day is sufficient for a man to discover what happiness is.

For broad understanding and deep feeling, you need pain and suffering.

It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.

Nothing could be more absurd than moral lessons at such a moment! Oh, self-satisfied people: with what proud self-satisfaction such babblers are ready to utter their pronouncements! If they only knew to what degree I myself understand all the loathsomeness of my present condition, they wouldn't have the heart to teach me.

I cannot truly imagine a truly great person who hasn't suffered.

There are things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.