No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human beast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.

In the depths of my heart I can’t help being convinced that my dear fellow-men, with a few exceptions, are worthless.

And now look at the great war still devastating Europe: think of the colossal brutality, cruelty, and mendacity which is now allowed to spread itself over the civilized world. Do you really believe that a handful of unprincipled place—hunters and corrupters of men would have succeeded in letting loose all this latent evil, if the millions of their followers were not also guilty?

Obviously one must hold oneself responsible for the evil impulses of one's dreams. In what other way can one deal with them? Unless the content of the dream rightly understood is inspired by alien spirits, it is part of my own being.

Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God.

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.