“The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.”

Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life.

In all the universe nothing remains permanent and unchanged but the spirit.

Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out.

You ask me what life is. That’s like asking what a carrot is. A carrot is a carrot, and there’s nothing more to know.

The illusion which exalts us is dearer to us than ten thousand truths.

He who desires nothing, hopes for nothing, and is afraid of nothing, cannot be an artist.

A man and a woman marry because both of them do not know what to do with themselves.

My love is like a stone tied round my neck; it’s dragging me down to the bottom; but I love my stone. I can’t live without it.

What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

If you want to work on your art, work on your life.

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

People are far more sincere and good-humored at speeding their parting guests than on meeting them.

Life on earth is inconceivable without trees.

Medicine is my lawful wife and literature my mistress; when I get tired of one, I spend the night with the other.

Women can’t forgive failure.

The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.

The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.

The poor suffer twice at the rioter’s hands. First, his destructive fury scars their neighborhood; second, the atmosphere of accommodation and consent is changed to one of hostility and resentment.

There is no surer road to destruction than prosperity without character.

Words, like tranquil waters behind a dam, can become reckless and uncontrollable torrents of destruction when released without caution and wisdom.

Years of misguided teaching have resulted in the destruction of the best in our society, in our cultures and in the environment.

The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity, too great for the eye of man.

As we all know, too much of any divine thing is destruction