“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’.”

The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.

My melancholy is the most faithful sweetheart I have had.

What labels me, negates me.

In my great melancholy, I loved life, for I love my melancholy.

And this is one of the most crucial definitions for the whole of Christianity; that the opposite of sin is not virtue but faith.

What if everything in the world were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears?

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

The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all.

Why bother remembering a past that cannot be made into a present?

In the secretly blushing cheek is reflected the glow of the heart.

Above all, do not lose your desire to walk.

My melancholy is the most faithful mistress I have known; what wonder, then, that I love her in return.

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.

What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.