The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation; through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.

A test of what is real is that it is hard and rough. Joys are found in it, not pleasure. What is pleasant belongs to dreams.

There is no detachment where there is no pain. And there is no pain endured without hatred or lying unless detachment is present too.

We cannot take a single step toward heaven. It is not in our power to travel in a vertical direction. If however we look heavenward for a long time, God comes and takes us up.

A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.

Only an indirect method is effective. We do nothing if we have not first drawn back.

The man who has known pure joy, if only for a moment ... is the only man for whom affliction is something devastating. At the same time he is the only man who has not deserved the punishment. But, after all, for him it is no punishment; it is God holding his hand and pressing rather hard. For, if he remains constant, what he will discover buried deep under the sound of his own lamentations is the pearl of the silence of God.