“Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.”

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”

“How frighteningly few are the persons whose death would spoil our appetite and make the world seem empty.”

“The passion for equality is partly a passion for anonymity: to be one thread of the many which make up a tunic; one thread not distinguishable from the others. No one can then point us out, measure us against others and expose our inferiority.”

“Our quarrel with the world is an echo of the endless quarrel proceeding within us.”

“We probably have a greater love for those we support than for those who support us. Our vanity carries more weight than our self-interest.”

“No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are.”