If the people around you are spiteful and callous and will not hear you, fall down before them and beg their forgiveness; for in truth you are to blame for their not wanting to hear you.

My soul bleeds and the blood steadily, silently, disturbingly slowly, swallows me whole.

I used to analyze myself down to the last thread, used to compare myself with others, recalled all the smallest glances, smiles and words of those to whom I’d tried to be frank, interpreted everything in a bad light, laughed viciously at my attempts ‘to be like the rest’ –and suddenly, in the midst of my laughing, I’d give way to sadness, fall into ludicrous despondency and once again start the whole process all over again – in short, I went round and round like a squirrel on a wheel.

--you wouldn't have hurt me like this for nothing. So what have I done? How have I wronged you? Tell me.

Besides, nowadays, almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it.

.. But do you understand, I cry to him, do you understand that along with happiness, in the exact same way, in perfectly equal proportion, man also needs unhappiness

If there is no God, everything is permitted.