What concerns me is that man, unable to articulate, to express himself adequately, reverts to action. Since the vocabulary of action is limited, as it were, to his body, he is bound to act violently, extending his vocabulary with a weapon where there should have been an adjective.

If they had wanted to punish me, they should have kept me in a communal apartment. Then I would have become a wreck.

After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life.

Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse

Racism? But isn't it only a form of misanthropy?

In the West you have every opportunity for civilization to triumph.

...boredom speaks the language of time, and it is to teach you the most valuable lesson in your life--...the lesson of your utter insignificance. It is valuable to you, as well as to those you are to rub shoulders with. 'You are finite,' time tells you in a voice of boredom, 'and whatever you do is, from my point of view, futile.' As music to your ears, this, of course, may not count; yet the sense of futility, of limited significance even of your best, most ardent actions is better than the illusion of their consequence and the attendant self-satisfaction.