Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap.

My resolve to die was not the whim of an hour. It was the ripe, sound fruit that had slowly grown to full size, lightly rocked by the winds of fate whose next breath would bring it to the ground.

You learned people and artists have, no doubt, all sorts of superior things in your heads; but you're human beings like the rest of us, and we, too, have our dreams and fancies.

I live in my dreams — that's what you sense. Other people live in dreams, but not in their own. That's the difference.

People with courage and character always seem sinister to the rest.

I do want more. I am not content with being happy. I was not made for it. It is not my destiny. My destiny is the opposite.

Among mathematicians, even in those days, the reputation of being a good Glass Bead Game player meant a great deal; it was equivalent to being a very good mathematician.