“To all pimps and whores a merry syphilis and a happy gonorrhea.”

“Pain is easy to write. In pain we're all happily individual. But what can one write about happiness?”

“She couldn't avoid being serious about things she cared for, and happiness made her grave at the thought of all the things which might destroy it.”

“I'm only saying I want you to be happy. I hate your being unhappy. I don't mind anything you do that makes you happy."You just want an excuse. If I sleep with anybody else, you feel you can do the same - any time."That's neither here nor there. I want you to be happy, that's all."You'd make my bed for me?"Perhaps.”

“happiness is never really so welcome as changelessness”

“The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.”

“In our hearts there is a ruthless dictator, ready to contemplate the misery of a thousand strangers if it will ensure the happiness of the few we love.”