“Ah, what a morning this is, awakening me to life's stupidity. [98 - Zenith trans.]”

“back home.. the tablecloth of civilization makes us forget the already painted pine it covers! ([50], Zenith trans.)”

“This little boy playing next to me is an intellectual mass of cells - better yet, he's a clockwork of subatomic movements, a strange electrical conglomeration of millions of solar systems in minature. [58, Zenith trans.]”

“Let's adopt all the poses and gestures of something we aren't and don't wish to be, and don't even wish to be taken for being.Let's buy books so as not to read them; let's go to concerts without caring to hear the music or see who's there; let's take long walks because we're sick of walking; and let's spend whole days in the country, just because it bores us. [23](Zenith trans.)”

“Se te queres matar, porque não te queres matar?Ah, aproveita! que eu, que tanto amo a morte e a vida,Se ousasse matar-me, também me mataria...Ah, se ousares, ousa!”

“Ah, it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!”

“What Hells and Purgatories and Heavens I have inside of me! But who sees me do anything that disagrees with life--me, so calm and peaceful?”