The most appropriate type of daily life for me was a day-by-day world destruction; peace was the most difficult and abnormal state to live in.

As long as you know I am waiting, take your time flowers of the spring.

...of all the kinds of decay in this world, decadent purity is the most malignant.

As usual, it occurred to me that words were the only thing that could possibly save me from this situation. This was a characteristic misunderstanding on my part. When action was needed, I was absorbed in words; for words proceeded with such difficulty from my mouth that I was intent on them and forgot all about action. It seemed to me that actions, which are dazzling, varied things, must always be accompanied by equally dazzling and equally varied words.

In the pale light of daybreak the gravestones looked like so many white sails of boats anchored in a busy harbor. They were sails that would never again be filled with wind, sails that, too long unused and heavily drooping, had been turned into stone just as they were. The boats' anchors had been thrust so deeply into the dark earth that they could never again be raised.

Possessing by letting go of things was a secret of ownership unknown to youth.

It is a common failing of childhood to think that if one makes a hero out of a demon the demon will be satisfied.