During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.

Affliction is able to drown out every earthly voice. . . but the voice of eternity within a person it cannot drown.

...he who always hopes for the best becomes old, deceived by life, and he who is always prepared for the worst becomes old prematurely; but he who has faith, retains eternal youth.

To the frivolous Christianity is certainly not glad tidings, for it wishes first of all to make them serious.

We live as if we were unaware of our impending destruction

A poet is an unhappy creature whose heart is tortured by deepest suffering but whose lips are so formed that when his sighs and cries stream out over them, their sound beomes like the sound of beautiful music . . . . And men flock about the poet saying, Sing for us soon again; that is to say, may new sufferings torture your soul, and may your lips continue to be formed as before.

I stick my finger into existence and it smells of nothing.