[ Remark after arriving in New York, N.Y., 21 Feb. 1938 :] Where I am, there is Germany.

A human being tends to believe that the mood of the moment, be it troubled or blithe, peaceful or stormy, is the true, native, and permanent tenor of his existence ... whereas the truth is that he is condemned to improvisation and morally lives from hand to mouth all the time.

A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.

A man’s dying is more the survivors’ affair than his own.

A solitary, unused to speaking of what he sees and feels, has mental experiences which are at once

A state of conscience is higher than a state of innocence.

A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

All interest in disease and death is only another expression of interest in life.

And his heart was stirred, it felt a father’s kindness: such an emotion as the possessor of beauty can inspire in one who has offered himself up in spirit to create beauty.

Beauty can pierce one like a pain.