Last year nothing happened The year before nothing happened And the year before that nothing happened.

Whenever I was asked what I wanted my first impulse was to answer "Nothing." The thought went through my mind that it didn't make any difference, that nothing was going to make me happy.

I like roses best. But they bloom in all four seasons. I wonder if people who like roses best have to die four times over again.

What did he mean by "society"? The plural of human beings?

What is society but an individual? [] The ocean is not society; it is individuals. This was how I managed to gain a modicum of freedom from my terror at the illusion of the ocean called the world.

And I was incapable of living all by myself in those lodgings where I didn't know a soul. It terrified me to sit by myself quietly in my room. I felt frightened, as if I might be set upon or struck by someone at any moment.

The weak fear happiness itself.