No psychologist should pretend to understand what he does not understand. Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand nothing.

In order to understand life, you have to live it, not observe it.

There is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table; what is national is no longer science.

In the midst of life, death has its dominion.

The present is always difficult, but all would be different if we had faith in the future.

A writer should not be too intelligent, nor too stupid, but somewhere in between.

I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me.

A writer should be as objective as a chemist; he should lay aside his personal desires and prejudices and study his subject from every angle.

A writer is not a confectioner, a cosmetic dealer, or an entertainer. He is a man who has signed a contract with his conscience and his sense of duty.

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.

The heart can only be conquered by love and patience.

Love, to be real, must always involve some self-sacrifice.

The most important thing in life is human relationships.

Love, like fire, goes out without fuel.

One must not trifle with love.

A person who doesn’t love himself cannot love anyone else (either).

Everything that I understand, I understand only because I love.

Love, she thought, must come suddenly, with great outbursts and lightnings, a hurricane of the skies, which falls upon life, revolutionizes it, roots up the will like a leaf, and sweeps the whole heart into the abyss

An artist is not a master of himself, he is not the master of his subject, but he is a servant of his vision

The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.

The function of the artist is to make people feel.

The only way for a woman, as for a man, to find herself, to know herself as a person, is by creative work of her own.

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.

There is nothing more beautiful than a woman who is comfortable in her own skin.

The emancipation of women is not an act of charity, it’s a basic necessity for the revolution to triumph.

A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.

A woman can become a man’s friend only in the following stages – first an acquaintance, then a mistress, and after that a friend.

It’s easier to write about Socrates than about a young woman or a cook.

When a woman isn’t beautiful, people always say, ‘You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.’

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

The strength of a woman is not measured by the impact that all her hardships in life have had on her, but the strength of a woman is measured by the extent of her refusal to allow those hardships to dictate her and who she becomes

Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it cannot be cured.

Doctors are just the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are. It solely relies on what you think.

Man is unhappy because he doesn’t know he’s happy.

The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another’s keeping.

Life does not agree with philosophy: There is no happiness that is not idleness, and only what is useless is pleasurable.

One must never look for happiness: one meets it by the way.

The greatest happiness you can have is knowing that you do not necessarily require happiness.

I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, will not appear every day in my sky.

The most terrifying thing in the world is to accept oneself completely.

When you’re thirsty and it seems that you could drink the entire ocean, that’s faith; when you start to drink and finish only a glass or two, that’s science.

The worst thing about being lied to is knowing you’re not worth the truth.

A clever, ugly man every now and then is successful with the ladies, but a handsome fool is irresistible.

The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.

A good upbringing means not that you won’t spill sauce on the tablecloth, but that you won’t notice it when someone else does

All of life and human relations have become so incomprehensibly complex that, when you think about it, it becomes terrifying and your heart stands still.

In order to change the world, you have to get your head together first.

One must know how to use the daylight to advantage.

A human being is a being who is constantly ‘under construction,’ but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of constant destruction.

If you are afraid of wolves, keep out of the woods.

Man is born to live and not to prepare for life.

If you are afraid of loneliness, don’t marry.

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible.

Love, friendship and respect do not unite people as much as a common hatred for something.

The world is always in movement.

I am not a politician, and my other habits are also good.

One must never lose time in vainly regretting the past or in complaining about the changes which cause us discomfort, for change is the very essence of life.

People who lead a lonely existence always have something on their minds that they are eager to talk about.

There are people who are too intelligent to ever be classified as human.

There is nothing more terrible than ignorance in action.

We learn about life not from plusses alone, but from minuses as well.

The only thing that makes one place more attractive to me than another is the quantity of heart I find in it

People are drawn to those who give off positive energy because they are energized themselves by the same things.

To advise is not to compel.

The hardest thing is to live richly in the present without letting it be tainted out of fear for the future or regret for the past.

Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

I am not a teacher, but an awakener.

We shall find peace. We shall hear angels, we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

It’s easier to talk about things than to actually do them.

The sea has neither meaning nor pity.

The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.

Let us learn to appreciate there will be times when the trees will be bare, and look forward to the time when we may pick the fruit.

To be a human being among people and to remain one forever, no matter in what circumstances, not to grow despondent and not to lose heart – that’s what life is all about, that’s its task

Any idiot can face a crisis; it’s the day-to-day living that wears you out.

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.

Man is what he believes.

What a fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.

People should be beautiful in every way – in their faces, in the way they dress, in their thoughts, and in their innermost selves.

The thoughts that occur to me while I’m running are like clouds in the sky. Clouds of all different sizes. They come and they go, while the sky remains the same sky always