I realized that even if we went on talking till Judgment Day, I would still find the time all too short.

Why does one exist? That's not my problem. One does exist. The thing to do is to take no notice but go at it on the run and to keep on going right on until you die.

Buying is profound pleasure.

I am awfully greedy; I want everything from life. I want to be a woman and to be a man, to have many friends and to have loneliness, to work much and write good books, to travel and enjoy myself, to be selfish and to be unselfish… You see, it is difficult to get all which I want. And then when I do not succeed I get mad with anger.

She was not to look beyond herself for the meaning of her life.

Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to.

To will oneself moral and to will oneself free are one and the same decision.