The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.

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.

Nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom. –The Grand Inquisitor

I don't need money, or, better, it's not money that I need; it's not even power; I need only what is obtained by power and simply cannot be obtained without power: the solitary and calm awareness of strength! That is the fullest definition of freedom, which the world so struggles over!

You ache with it all; and the more mysterious it is, the more you ache.

A cultivated and decent man cannot be vain without setting a fearfully high standard for himself, and without despising and almost hating himself at certain moments.

My God, a moment of bliss. Why, isn't that enough for a whole lifetime?