You see I kept asking myself then: why am I so stupid that if others are stupid—and I know they are—yet I won't be wiser?

But what can a decent man speak of with most pleasure? Answer: Of himself. Well, so I will talk about myself.

I want to suffer and be purified by suffering!

And if there's love, you can do without happiness too. Even with sorrow, life is sweet.

Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice.

We are all happy if we but knew it.

When . . . in the course of all these thousands of years has man ever acted in accordance with his own interests?