Who among us has the strength to oppose petty egoism, those petty good feelings, pity and remorse?

Even nightingales can’t be fed on fairy tales.

What's terrible is that there's nothing terrible, that the very essence of life is petty, uninteresting, and degradingly trite.

People without firmness of character love to make up a fate for themselves; that relieves them of the necessity of having their own will and of taking responsibility for themselves.

We’re young, we’re not monsters, no fools: we’ll conquer happiness for ourselves.

I'm through with Tolstoy. He has ceased to exist for me.... If I eat a bowl of soup and like it, I know by that fact alone and with absolute certainty that Tolstoy will find it bad, and vice versa.

The fact is that previously they were simply dunces and now they've suddenly become nihilists.