“If we climb high enough, we will reach a height from which tragedy ceases to look tragic.”

“If we look at life in its small details, how ridiculous it all seems. It is like a drop of water seen through a microscope, a single drop teeming with protozoa. How we laugh as they bustle about so eagerly and struggle with one another. Whether here, or in the little span of human life, this terrible activity produces a comic effect”

“A sense of life meaning ensues but cannot be deliberately pursued: life meaning is always a derivative phenomenon that materializes when we have transcended ourselves, when we have forgotten ourselves and become absorbed in someone (or something) outside ourselves”

“He had learned long ago that, in general, the easier it was for anxious patients to reach him, the less likely they were to call. (107)”

“Sterven is echter de eenzaamste gebeurtenis van het leven. We worden er niet alleen door van anderen afgescheiden, maar daarnaast stelt het ons ook bloot aan een nog angstaanjagender vorm van eenzaamheid: het is een scheiding van de wereld zelf.”

“Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you'll always find despair.”

“Live right, he reminded himself, and have faith that good things will flow from you even if you never learn of them.”