What is existence for but to be laughed at if men in their twenties have already attained the utmost?
In my great melancholy, I loved life, for I love my melancholy.
My sorrow is my castle.
Language has time as its element; all other media have space as their element.
My melancholy is the most faithful sweetheart I have had.
I have only one friend, and that is echo. Why is it my friend? Because I love my sorrow, and echo does not take it away from me. I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of night. Why is it my confidant? Because it remains silent.
Therefore do not deceive yourself! Of all deceivers fear most yourself!
To grumble about the world and its unhappiness is always easier than to beat one’s breast and groan over oneself.
Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.
But doubt is wily and cunning and never, as it is sometimes said to be, loud or defiant. It is unassuming and sly, not bold or assertive – and the more unassuming, the more dangerous.
In the deepest sense, the being in a state of sin is the sin, the particular sins are not the continuation of sin, they are expressions of its continuation.
The great trick with a woman is to get rid of her while she think’s she’s rid of you.
It takes moral courage to grieve; it requires religious courage to rejoice.
This is all that I’ve known for certain, that God is love. Even if I have been mistaken on this or that point: God is nevertheless love.
The minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion.
Job endured everything – until his friends came to comfort him, then he grew impatient.
Those who dream must be awakened, and the deeper the people are who slumber, or the deeper they slumber, the more important it is that they be awakened, and the more powerfully must they be awakened.
No time of life is so beautiful as the early days of love, when with every meeting, every glance, one fetches something new home to rejoice over.
In actuality, no one ever sank so deep that he could not sink deeper, and there may be one or many who sank deeper. So it is always possible to be happy and grateful that things are not worse!
If I could prescribe only one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence.