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I can only describe this book by: The manifestation of suffocation and boredom

It was a splendid mind. For if thought is like the keyboard of a piano, divided into so many notes, or like the alphabet is ranged in twenty-six letters all in order, then his splendid mind had no sort of difficulty in running over those letters one by one, firmly and accurately, until it had reached, say, the letter Q. He reached Q. Very few people in the whole of England ever reach Q

وإذا كان الانهيار وخمول الذهن قد حلّا بي، فقد نسيت حتى البراهين التي كنت أبني عليها معتقدي ومبادئي، ولكنني لن أنسى أبدًا النتائج من الآن فصاعدًا، ألا فليُقبل الفلاسفة ويُماحكوا في هذه النتائج، فإنهم سيضيعون وقتهم سدى. ثم إني سأتمسك ما بقيت لي من الحياة صبابة، بالقصد الذي اخترتُه حين كنت في حال أستطيع فيها أن أحسن الاختيار.

إن الضرّاء، ولا شك، أعظم معلّم، ولكن أجر دروسها غال، وكثيرًا ما يكون النفع الذي يُجنى لا يوازي الثمن الذي أُدّي، وقبل أن يحرز المرء جميع المكاسب من دروس جاءت متأخرة، يكون زمن الانتفاع بها قد ولّى.

سأكرّس بقية أيامي لدراسة نفسي. فلأستسلمنّ إذن كل الاستسلام إلى حلاوة التحدث عن نفسي لأنها الحلاوة الوحيدة التي لا يستطيع الناس أن ينتزعوها مني. وإذا كنت أتوصّل، بفضل تفكيري في ما انطوت عليه باطنتي، إلى أن أنظم الأمور التي تختلج فيها وأن أصلح الشر الذي ربما كان لا يزال فيها، فإن تأملاتي لن تكون بلا جدوى تمامًا، ومع أني أصبحت لا أنفع شيئًا على هذه الأرض، فلن أكون قد أضعت عبثًا أيامي الخيرة.

to such people even in earliest childhood any turn in the
wheel of sensation has the power to crystallize and transfix the moment
upon which its gloom or radiance rests,

evidently the happy man only feels at ease because the unhappy bear their burdens in silence, and without that silence happiness would be impossible. It's a case of general hypnotism.

And, you know, whoever has once in his life caught perch or has seen the migrating of the thrushes in autumn, watched how they float in flocks over the village on bright, cool days, he will never be a real townsman, and will have a yearning for freedom to the day of his death.

We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.

One can live for years sometimes without living at all, and then all life comes crowding into one single hour.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices.

Anybody can have common sense, provided that they have no imagination.

The real tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self-denial.
Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.