“If life is a punishment, one should wish for an end; if life is a test, one should wish it to be short.”

“People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that's a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.”

“One should not go into churches if one wishes to breathe pure air.”

“Oh, I wish so much to live again! Each minute, each instant of life should be blessedness for man... they should, surely they should! It is man's own duty to arrange it so; it is his law--a hidden but surely existing one...”

“I do not wish to say that one should love death; but one should love life so magnanimously, so without calculating and selecting, that love of death (the turned-away side of life) is continually and involuntarily included - which actually happens invariably in the great motions of love, which are impetuous and illimitable.”

“One should not seek those who do not wish to be found.”