“What is it that I especially find utterly unendurable? That I cannot cope with, that makes me choke and faint? Bad air! Bad air! The approach of some ill-constituted thing; that I have to smell the entrails of some ill-constituted soul!”

“A bad conscience is easier to cope with than a bad reputation.”

“The certain prospect of death could sweeten every life with a precious and fragrant drop of levity; and now you strange apothecary souls have turned it into an ill-tasting drop of poison that makes the whole of life repulsive.”

“A strong and well-constituted man digests his experiences (deeds and misdeeds all included) just as he digests his meats, even when he has some tough morsels to swallow. ”

“A. Was I ill? Have I got well? Who was my doctor? Can you tell? Oh, my memory is rotten!B. Only now you're truly well. Those are well who have forgotten.”

“The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.”

“Books for the masses are always bad-smelling books: the odour of little people cling to them.”