Life and Existence

Marriage is a great institution—but I’m not ready for an institution.

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.

Marriage must constantly fight against a monster which devours everything: routine.

Marriage must constantly fight against a monster which devours everything: routine.

Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of Nature, and more and more does he turn himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him.

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal.

Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.

Loneliness is the way by which destiny endeavors to lead man to himself.

Loneliness comes about when I am alone without being able . . . to keep myself company.

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

The use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life.

What a lost person needs is a map of the territory . . . so he can see where he is in relation to everything else. Literature is not only a mirror; it is a map, a geography of the mind.

Life is the funny thing that happens to you on the way to the grave.

Life is the funny thing that happens to you on the way to the grave.

Life is a near-death experience.

Life is a near-death experience.

Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.

Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.

Life is a rainbow which also includes black.

Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum.

Life is like a beautiful flirt, whom we love and to whom, finally, we grant every condition she imposes as long as she doesn’t leave us.

The warehouse of that memory is called the library.

The library is an arena of possibility, opening both a window into the soul and a door onto the world.