Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.

... a man has to think of his soul before everything else.

He looked at her as a man looks at a faded flower he has gathered, with difficulty recognizing in it the beauty for which he picked and ruined it. And in spite of this he felt that then, when his love was stronger, he could, if he had greatly wished it, have torn that love out of his heart; but now when as at that moment it seemed to him he felt no love for her, he knew that what bound him to her could not be broken.

Life did not stop, and one had to live.

And you know, there's less charm in life when you think about death--but it's more peaceful.

Power is the sum total of the wills of the mass, transfered by express or tactic agreement to rulers chosen by the masses.

It's hard to love a woman and do anything.