Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness.

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

In solitude we are in the presence of mere matter (even the sky, the stars, the moon, trees in blossom), things of less value (perhaps) than a human spirit. Its value lies in the greater possibility of attention.

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

To be innocent is to bear the weight of the entire universe. It is to throw away the counterweight.

I suffer more from the humiliations inflicted by my country than from those inflicted on her.

To claim that theft or adultery or lying are "evil" simply reflects our degraded idea of good-—that it has something to do with respect for property, respectability, and sincerity.