Suicide only really frightens those who are never tempted by it and never will be, for its darkness only welcomes those who are predestined to it.

The world is eaten up by boredom. You can't see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn't even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands.

The modern state no longer has anything but rights; it does not recognize duties any more.

God ordains that beggars should beg for greatness, as for all else, when greatness shines out of them, and they don't know it.

...the most dangerous shortsightedness consists in underestimating the mediocre.

Optimism approves of everything, submits to everything, believes everything; it is the virtue above all of the taxpayer.

When writing of oneself one should show no mercy. Yet why at the first attempt to discover one's own truth does all inner strength seem to melt away in floods of self-pity and tenderness and rising tears?