“What is existence for but to be laughed at if men in their twenties have already attained the utmost?”

The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, ‘Create silence’.

Listen to the cry of a woman in labor at the hour of giving birth — look at the dying man’s struggle at his last extremity, and then tell me whether something that begins and ends thus could be intended for enjoyment.

Don’t forget to love yourself.

It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand.

The self-assured believer is a greater sinner in the eyes of God than the troubled disbeliever.

My sorrow is my castle.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

It is very important in life to know when your cue comes.

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.

It is impossible to exist without passion.

The task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted.

It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.

Boredom is the root of all evil.

Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.

If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

Men exist for the sake of one another.

It is in your act that you exist, not in your body. Your act is yourself, and there is no other you.

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.

Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

One can’t prove that God doesn’t exist. But science makes God unnecessary. The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator.

Social media has changed everything in our world. The collective humanity, as it was, has such a voice these days, and that’s never really existed before.

As if nothing that does not obviously make for the benefit of man had any right to exist; as if our ways were God’s ways.