Only self-hatred could lead him to ruin himself because his heart was "broken.

To tell the truth I never had it so good. But I lacked the strength of character to bear such joy.

Boredom is an instrument of social control. Power is the power to impose boredom, to command stasis, to combine this stasis with anguish. The real tedium, deep tedium, is seasoned with terror and with death.

An exchange occurs between man and woman. Love and thought complete each other in the human pair, and something like an exchange of souls takes place, according to the divine plan.

De Tocqueville considered the impulse toward well-being as one of the strongest impulses of a democratic society. He can't be blamed for underestimating the destructive powers generated by this same impulse.

The dream of man's heart ... is that life may complete in significant pattern.

Boredom is the conviction that you can't change ... the shriek of unused capacities.