We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.
We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its coerciveness: it is always urgent, ‘here and now,’ without any postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank.
The idea of beauty, like a slab of magnificent marble, has crushed all possible refinement and vitality from the psychology of love.
Since love is the most delicate and total act of a soul, it will reflect the state and nature of the soul. The characteristics of the person in love must be attributed to love itself.
The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man
Let others think what they like: for me, the culmination of life consists of a pure and subtly dramatic passion.
Nine-tenths of that which is attributed to sexuality is the work of our magnificent ability to imagine, which is no longer an instinct, but exactly the opposite: a creation.
…falling in love is a state of mental misery which has a restricting, impoverishing, and paralyzing effect upon the development of our consciousness.
I am I and my circumstance; and, if I do not save it, I do not save myself.
Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.
Why write, if this too easy activity of pushing a pen across paper is not given a certain bull-fighting risk and we do not approach dangerous, agile, and two-horned topics?
Let us tear down the romantic trappings that have adorned passion. Let us cease believing that the measure of a man’s love lies in how stupid he has become or is willing to be.
Marxian Socialism and Bolshevism are two historical phenomena which have hardly a single common denominator.