“The loveliest creations of men are persistently painful. What would be the description of happiness?”

“What would a narrative of happiness be like? All that can be described is what prepares it, and then what destroys it.”

“I do not love men: I love what devours them.”

“Envying another man's happiness is madness; you wouldn't know what to do with it if you had it.”

“In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.”

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”

“We who would seek new land must be willing to sacrifice the sight of shore for a long, long time.”