“Think of God and not religion, of ecstasy and not mysticism. The difference between the theoretician of faith and the believer is as great as between the psychiatrist and the psychotic.”

“Between Ennui and Ecstasy unwinds our whole experience of time.”

“The initial revelation of any monastery: everything is nothing. Thus begin all mysticisms. It is less than one step from nothing to God, for God is the positive expression of nothingness.”

“Our only choice is between irrespirable truths and salutary frauds.”

“Between the demand to be clear,and the temptation to be obscure, impossible to decide which deserves more respect.”

“What misery a sensation is! Ecstasy itself, perhaps, is nothing more.”

“Bitterness, principle of your determination, your mode of action, and understanding, is the one fixed point in your oscillation between disgust for the world and self-pity.”