One could construe the life of man as a great discourse in which the various people represent different parts of speech (the same might apply to states).

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

In the end, therefore, money will be the one thing people will desire, which is moreover only representative, an abstraction. Nowadays a young man hardly envies anyone his gifts, his art, the love of a beautiful girl, or his fame; he only envies him his money. Give me money, he will say, and I am saved...He would die with nothing to reproach himself with, and under the impression that if only he had had the money he might really have lived and might even have achieved something great.

Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.

I have just now come from a party where I was its life and soul; witticisms streamed from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me, but I went away - yes, the dash should be as long as the radius of the earth's orbit ——————————— and wanted to shoot myself.

The most common despair is...not choosing, or willing, to be oneself...[but] the deepest form of despair is to choose to be another than oneself.

What a misfortune to be a woman! And yet, the worst misfortune is not to understand what a misfortune it is.