“For in spite of language, in spite of intelligence and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate anything to anybody.”

“It was not only that I could not become spiteful, I did not know how to become anything; neither spiteful nor kind, neither a rascal nor an honest man, neither a hero nor an insect. Now, I am living out my life in my corner, taunting myself with the spiteful and useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously, and it is only the fool who becomes anything.”

“Can we grasp, for instance, that in spite of weather vagaries, even in spite of present soil erosion, there is and could be more than enough produced to-day to allow everyone everywhere a fair standard of living, without entailing drudgery for anybody?”

“Only one thing remained reachable, close and secure amid all losses: language. Yes, language. In spite of everything, it remained secure against loss.”

“I was never really on my side in any argument. I liked the Old Testament spitefulness of the phraseSometimes women do.”

“In spite of the six thousand manuals on child raising in the bookstores, child raising is still a dark continent and no one really knows anything. You just need a lot of love and luck - and, of course, courage.”

“THERE IS NEVER ANYTHING TO PRO-DUCE. In spite of all its materialist efforts, production remains a utopia. We can wear ourselves out in materializing things, in rendering them visible, but we will never cancel the secret.”

“Spite, spite, is the word of your undoing!”

“A spiteful one is the least comfortable.”

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”