“How difficult it is to advance at one's own internal rhythm when one is constantly fighting against the inertia of the material world. Everything is always on the verge of stopping.”

“In moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy but always against one's own body.”

“War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact.”

“Marriage must fight constantly against a monster which devours everything: routine.”

“It's difficult to stop trying with the one you love. You always hope that this next time might work, might change everything for the better.”

“It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one’s own body... On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sinking ship, the issues that you are fighting for are always forgotten, because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even when you are not paralysed by fright or screaming with pain, life is a moment-to-moment struggle against hunger or cold or sleeplessness, against a sour stomach or an aching tooth.”