At that point I ought to have gone away, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance of fate, a desire to challenge it, to put out my tongue at it. I laid down the largest stake allowe-four thousand gulden-and lost it. Then, getting hot, I pulled out all I had left, staked it on the same number, and lost again, after which I walked away from the table as though I were stunned. I could not even grasp what had happened to me.

The man who has a conscience suffers whilst acknowledging his sin. That is his punishment.

There is nothing in the world more difficult than candor, and nothing easier than flattery. If there is a hundredth of a fraction of a false note to candor, it immediately produces dissonance, and as a result, exposure. But in flattery, even if everything is false down to the last note, it is still pleasant, and people will listen not without pleasure; with coarse pleasure, perhaps, but pleasure nevertheless.

... what you need more than anything in life is a definite position.

One must love life before loving its meaning ... yes, and when the love of life disappears, no meaning can console us.

There is nothing more alluring to man than freedom of conscience, but neither is there anything more agonizing.

Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled.