For it cannot be denied that all over the world and in all ages there are beings who are perceived to be extraordinary, charming, and appealing, and whom many honor as benevolent spirits, because they make one think of a more beautiful, a freer, a more winged life than the one we lead.

Never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner.

That is just what life is when it is beautiful and happy - a game! Naturally, one can also do all kinds of other things with it, make a duty of it, or a battleground, or a prison, but that does not make it any prettier...

He had too much to think about. In the course of his long, useless marches he had sunk deeper and deeper into the tangle of his botched life as into a clump of brambles, and still he had found no meaning or consolation.

Because when a man tries to realize himself through the gifts with which nature has endowed him, he does the best and only meaningful thing he can do. That’s why, in former days, I often said to you: don’t try to imitate the thinker or the ascetic man, but be yourself, try to be yourself.

А все, что еще предстоит пережить, увидеть глазами, трогать руками, пока наконец не наступит смерть, разве ЭТО будет из другого материала, разве ЭТО будет что-то другое? Нет, вся эта прекрасная и жестокая, восхитительная и безнадежная игра жизни, с ее жгучими наслаждениями и ее жгучей болью, - только игра и обман, только видимость, только майя.

What was the meaning of my life? Why had so many joys and sorrows passed over me? Why had I thirsted for the true and beautiful and why was my thirst still unquenched?... And why had God placed the burning need to be loved in my heart when in fact he had destined me to live the life of a recluse whom no one loved?

To deal with history [life] means to abandon one's self to chaos but to retain a belief in the ordination and the meaning. It is a very serious task.

Auf diesem Platz hat schon mancher gedacht, hier wäre der Ort für ein tüchtiges Stück Leben und Freude, hier müßte etwas Lebendiges, Beglückendes wachsen können, hier müßten reife und gute Menschen ihre freudigen Gedanken denken und schöne und heitere Werke schaffen.