A man able to think isn't defeated - even when he is defeated.

The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for other people.

In Irena’s head the alcohol plays a double role: it frees her fantasy, encourages her boldness, makes her sensual, and at the same time it dims her memory. She makes love wildly, lasciviously, and at the same time the curtain of oblivion wraps her lewdness in an all-concealing darkness. As if a poet were writing his greatest poem with ink that instantly disappears.

A single metaphor can give birth to love.

Seeing is limited by two borders: Strong light, which blinds, and total darkness.

He was no longer quite sure whether anything he had ever thought or felt was truly his own property, or whether his thoughts were merely a common part of the world’s store of ideas which had always existed ready-made and which people only borrowed, like books from a library.

Laughing deeply is living deeply.