Consciousness is man's greatest misfortune, still I know that man loves it and will not exchange it for any satisfactions.

She enjoyed her own pain by this egoism of suffering, if I may so express it. This aggravation of suffering and this rebelling in it I could understand; it is the enjoyment of man, of the insulted and injured, oppressed by destiny, and smarting under the sense of its injustice.

I want to suffer so that I may love.

I tell you solemnly, that I have many times tried to become an insect. But I was not equal even to that. I swear, gentlemen, that to be too conscious is an illness- a real thorough-going illness.

Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.