They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other.
Man has it all in his hands, and it all slips through his fingers from sheer cowardice.
A hundred suspicions don’t make a proof.
I agree that two times two makes four is an excellent thing; but if we are dispensing praise, then two times two makes five is sometimes a most charming little thing as well.
Men are made for happiness, and he who is completely happy has the right to say to himself, ‘I am doing God’s will on earth.
Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those they have slain.
But man is so addicted to systems and to abstract conclusions that he is prepared deliberately to distort the truth, to close his eyes and ears, but justify his logic at all cost.
Oh, how unbearable is a happy person sometimes!
Without a clear perception of his reasons for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with bread”.
In despair there are the most intense enjoyments, especially when one is acutely conscious of the hopelessness of one’s position.
There is, indeed, nothing more annoying than to be, for instance, wealthy, of good family, nice-looking, fairly intelligent, and even good-natured, and yet to have no talents, no special faculty, no peculiarity even, not one idea of one’s own, to be precisely “like other people.
The secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for.
But what are years, what are months!” he would exclaim. “Why count the days, when even one day is enough for man to know all happiness.
Let it not be a beautiful face,′ I thought, ’but to make up for that, let it be a noble, an expressive, and, above all, an extremely intelligent one.
It’s precisely in despair that you find the most intense pleasure, especially if you are already powerfully conscious of the hopelessness of your predicament.
And what does it mean – ridiculous? wWhat does it matter how many times a man is or seems to be ridiculous? Besides, nowadays almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it.
Young man, do not forget to pray. Each time you pray, if you do so sincerely, there will be the flash of a new feeling in it, and a new thought as well, one you did not know before, which will give you fresh courage; and you will understand that prayer is education.
I think man will never renounce real suffering, that is destruction and chaos. Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.
We’ve got facts,” they say. But facts aren’t everything; at least half the battle consists in how one makes use of them!
Why, you are so eaten up with pride and vanity that you’ll end by eating up one another, that’s what I prophecy.