"Midway through his life, Dante, on the eve of Good Friday, 1300, discovers that he has strayed from the True Way of the religious life, and has wandered into the Dark Wood of Error, where he must spend a miserable night."

"If we look deeply into the essence of things, into the horror of existence, Nietzsche thinks we will be overwhelmed — paralyzed. Like Hamlet we will not be able to act, because we see that action can "not change anything in the eternal nature of things."

"Yalom describes four primary issues of existence (or "ultimate concerns") — death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness."

"Quand c'est le monde qui vient à nous et non l'inverse, nous ne sommes plus « au monde », nous nous comportons comme les habitants d'un pays de cocagne qui consomment leur monde."

"An artist is by temperament a person who sees things as they are in themselves, not in those rough convenient categories which serve for the business of life."

"The figure of Christ, to us an entirely symbolical figure, is the interpretation of that old Osiris myth of Egypt."

"The human characteristic is consciousness; the characteristic of consciousness is a process of perpetual exhaustion, of detachment without rest or exclusion from everything that comes before it."

"The average man, says Shaw, can advance not a single reason for thinking that the earth is round."

"At this moment I do not believe in anything and I have no hope."

"As for the great problems, we have no advantage over our ancestors or our more recent predecessors: men have always known everything, at least in what concerns the Essential."

"Le rôle des périodes de déclin est de mettre une civilisation à nu, de la démasquer, de la dépouiller de ses prestiges et de l’arrogance liée à ses accomplissements."

"THE SO-CALLED science of psychology is now in chaos, with no sign that order is soon to be restored. "

"I believe that this feeling for the hearth, for the immemorial lares and penates, is infinitely stronger in Baltimore than in New York — that it has better survived there, indeed, than in any other large city of America."

"Those who are practising ‘stopping’ should retire to some quiet place and there, sitting erect, earnestly seek tranquilize and concentrate the mind."

"The psychic life-force, the libido, symbolizes itself in the sun or personifies itself in figures of heroes with solar attributes."

"Myth is certainly not an infantile phantasm, but one of the most important requisites of primitive life."

"The return to the simple life can be regarded as an unhoped-for piece of good fortune even though it demands considerable self-sacrifice and is not undertaken voluntarily."

"Not every conflict is necessarily neurotic; some amount of conflict is normal and healthy."

"This tale begins when Siddhartha, the beautiful son of a Brahman priest, finds that though he makes everyone else happy, he is not happy himself."

"The more I considered, the more the man seemed akin to the horse."

"One does not soon learn the trade of life. That one may work out a true life requires more art and delicate skill than any other work."

"A great source of the richness of personality which constitutes Horace's chief appeal lies in his contemplative disposition."

"The one thing men have not learned to do is to stick up for their own instinctive feelings, against the things they are taught."

"YOU WRITE to me, my dear sir, requesting advice at one of the most momentous epochs in a young man’s life."