The beginning of genius is being scared shitless.

All that makes a lunatic are the very ordinary ideas of mankind shut up inside a man's head.

That is perhaps what we seek throughout life, that and nothing more, the greatest possible sorrow so as to become fully ourselves before dying.

People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them.

The best way to make a sort of peace, a fragile armistice to be sure, but precious all the same, with men, officers or not, is to let them bask and wallow in childish self-glorification. There’s no such thing as intelligent vanity. It’s an instinct. And you’ll never find a man who is not first and formenost vain. The role of admiring doormat is about the only one that one man is glad to tolerate in another. With these soldiers I had no need to tax my imagination.

An Immense hatred keeps me alive... i would live for a thousand years if i were certain of seeing the whole world croak.

The sadness of the world has different ways of getting to people, but it seems to succeed almost every time.