"From the moment that man believes neither in God nor in immortal life, he becomes “responsible for everything alive, for everything that, born of suffering, is condemned to suffer from life.” It is he, and he alone, who must discover law and order. Then the time of exile begins, the endless search for justification, the aimless nostalgia, “the most painful, the most heartbreaking question, that of the heart which asks itself: where can I feel at home?"

"We have no power to prevent ourselves being born: but we can rectify this error—for it is sometimes an error. When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live."

"Everything lacks meaning. What does nihilism mean? That the highest values devalue themselves. The goal is lacking. The answer is lacking to our “why?"

"

XXI. VOLUNTARY DEATH

To many men life is a failure; a poison-worm gnaweth at their hearts. Then let them see to it that their dying is all the more a success.

Many never become sweet; they rot even in the summer. It is cowardice that holdeth them fast to their branches.

Far too many live, and far too long hang they on their branches. Would that a storm came and shook all this rottenness and worm-eatenness from the tree!

"

"A little poison now and then: that makes for pleasant dreams. And much poison at the end for a pleasant death."

"Perhaps I know best why it is man alone who laughs; he alone suffers so deeply that he had to invent laughter."

"Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present."

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."

"It is not so much the suffering as the senselessness of it that is unendurable."