I believe that the struggle against death, the unconditional and self-willed determination to live, is the mode of power behind the lives and activities of all outstanding men.

Siddhartha stopped fighting his fate this very hour, and he stopped suffering.

A father can pass on his nose and eyes and even his intelligence to his child, but not his soul. In every human being the soul is new

It is good to taste for yourself everything you need to know. That worldly pleasures and wealth are not good things, I learned even as a child. I knew it for a long time, but only now have I experienced it.

A mere nothing suffices — and the lightning strikes.

All men of goodwill have this in common - that our works put us to shame.

She stood a moment before my eyes, clearly and painfully, loved and deeply woven into my destiny; then fell away again in a deep oblivion, at a half regretted distance.