“No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it”

“pg 9, "The consciousness of life's unconsciousness is the oldest tax levied on the intelligence.”

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

“When all by myself, I can think of all kinds of clever remarks, quick comebacks to what no one said, and flashes of witty sociability with nobody. But all of this vanishes when I face someone in the flesh: I lose my intelligence, I can no longer speak, and after half an hour I just feel tired. Talking to people makes me feel like sleeping. Only my ghostly and imaginary friends, only the conversations I have in my dreams, are genuinely real and substantial.”

“...Queen, goodbye forever!Your wings were sunbeams, and my feet are clayI'll never be well if I don't get to bedI never was well unless I was stretched out across the universe.”

“And I have the others in me. Even when I’m far away from them, I am forced to live with them. Even when I’m all alone, crowds surround me. I have no place to flee to, unless I were to flee from myself.”

“We never love anyone. What we love is the idea we have of someone. It's our own concept—our own selves—that we love.”