Absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is, let alone the dullness of it and the pomposities of it.

The confusion is not my invention. We cannot listen to a conversation for five minutes without being aware of the confusion. It is all around us and our only chance now is to let it in. The only chance of renovation is to open our eyes and see the mess. It is not a mess you can make sense of.

All I say cancels out, I’ll have said nothing.

Just under the surface I shall be, all together at first, then separate and drift, through all the earth and perhaps in the end through a cliff into the sea, something of me. A ton of worms in an acre, that is a wonderful thought, a ton of worms, I believe it.

I don't know why I told this story. I could just as well have told another. Perhaps some other time I'll be able to tell another. Living souls, you will see how alike they are.

I try. I fail. I try again. I fail better.

Clear to me at last that the dark I have always struggled to keep under is in reality my most