The major and almost only theme of all my work is the struggle of man with “God”: the unyielding, inextinguishable struggle of the naked worm called “man” against the terrifying power and darkness of the forces within him and around him.
You gave me your curse, holy Fathers. I give you a blessing: May you be as moral and religious as I am.
Time is round, and it rolls quickly.
Alas for him who seeks salvation in good only! Balanced on God’s strong shoulders, Good and Evil flap together like two mighty wings and lift him high.
O Sun, great Oriental, my proud mind’s golden cap, I love to wear you cocked askew, to play and burst in song throughout our lives, and so rejoice our hearts.
All my life I struggled to stretch my mind to the breaking point, until it began to creak, in order to create a great thought which might be able to give a new meaning to life, a new meaning to death, and to console mankind.
There is only one woman in the world. One woman, with many faces.
Every word is an adamantine shell which encloses a great explosive force. To discover its meaning you must let it burst inside you like a bomb and in this way liberate the soul which it imprisons.
How does the light of a star set out and plunge into black eternity in its immortal course? The star dies, but the light never dies; such also is the cry of freedom.
Every village has its simpleton, and if one does not exist they invent one to pass the time.
Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.
Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind’s supreme model.
When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy – some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.
My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.
I’ve stopped thinking all the time of what happened yesterday. And stopped asking what’s going to happen tomorrow. What’s happening today, this minute, is what I care about.
How simple and frugal a thing is happiness.
Overdraw me Lord, and who cares if I break!
We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence.
Ah, if you could dance all that you’ve just said, then I’d understand.
I know now: I do not hope for anything. I do not fear anything, I have freed myself from both the mind and the heart, I have mounted much higher, I am free .