Quotes



It is only the immeasurable, the limitless that terrifies us. That which is set within defined, fixed limits is a challenge to our powers, comes to be the measure of our strength.

Beware of Pity
There�s an inherent limit to the stress that any material can bear. Water has its boiling point, metals their melting points. The elements of the spirit behave the same way. Happiness can reach a pitch so great that any further happiness can�t be felt. Pain, despair, humiliation, disgust, and fear are no different. Once the vessel is full, the world can�t add to it.

The Post-Office Girl
For the more a man limits himself, the nearer he is on the other hand to what is limitless; it is precisely those who are apparently aloof from the world who build for themselves a remarkable and thoroughly individual world in miniature, using their own special equipment, termit-like.

Chess Story
Every time you come to the limit of what is demanded of you, you are faced with the same problem - to be yourself!

Tropic of Capricorn
You got to know your limits. Once is enough, but you got to learn. A little caution never hurt anyone. A good woodsman has only one scar on him. No more, no less.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world
The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection
The human mind will not be confined to any limits
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays