The best actors do not let the wheels show.

Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo.

The worst thing is not that the world is unfree, but that people have unlearned their liberty.

But man, because he has only one life to live, cannot conduct experiments to test whether to follow his passion (compassion) or not.

Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.

Only the basic situations in life occur only once, never to return. For a man to be a man, he must be fully aware of this never-to-return. (p.148)

As you live out your desolation, you can be either unhappy or happy. Having that choice is what constitutes your freedom.