“I am alone, I thought, and they are everybody.”

“Suffering is part and parcel of extensive intelligence and a feeling heart.”

“Break what must be broken, once for all, that's all, and take the suffering on oneself.”

“Suffering and pain are always obligatory for a broad consciousness and a deep heart. Truly great men I think, must feel great sorrow in this world.”

“Consciousness is man's greatest misfortune, still I know that man loves it and will not exchange it for any satisfactions.”

“And, indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better - cheap happiness or exalted sufferings? Well, which is better?”

“Too many riddles weigh men down on earth. We must solve as we can, and try to keep a dry skin in the water.”

“What a man need is simply and solely independence volition, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead.”

“If I had had the power to prevent my own birth I should certainly never have consented to accept existence under such ridiculous conditions.”

“Men do not accept their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and worship those whom they have tortured to death.”