You can’t measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.
Nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of non-thought.
The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.
She was experiencing the same odd happiness and odd sadness as then. The sadness meant: We are at the last station. The happiness meant: We are together. The sadness was form, the happiness content. Happiness filled the space of sadness.
When the heart speaks, the mind finds it indecent to object.
Two people in love, alone, isolated from the world, that’s very beautiful. But what would they nourish their intimate talk with? However contemptible the world may be, they still need it to be able to talk together.
Einmal ist keinmal, says Tomas to himself. What happens but once, says the German adage, might as well not have happened at all. If we have only one life to live, we might as well not have lived at all.
I want you to be weak. As weak as I am.
The emotion of love gives all of us a misleading illusion of knowing the other.
The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?
To laugh is to live profoundly.
Oh lovers! be careful in those dangerous first days! once you’ve brought breakfast in bed you’ll have to bring it forever, unless you want to be accused of lovelessness and betrayal.
Ah, ladies and gentlemen, a man lives a sad life when he cannot take anything or anyone seriously.
The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for other people.
Optimism is the opium of the people.
People fascinated by the idea of progress never suspect that every step forward is also a step on the way to the end.
Unlike the puerile loyalty to a conviction, loyalty to a friend is a virtue – perhaps the only virtue, the last remaining one.
Yes, if you’re looking for infinity, just close your eyes!
Only the most naive of questions are truly serious.