An imaginary divinity has been given to man so that he may strip himself of it.

Let's leave his rank, then, — take the man himself:

...So you can put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Busybody Holmes.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

But I'm not a saint yet. I'm an alcoholic. I'm a drug addict. I'm homosexual. I'm a genius.

I am not a human being enjoying a spiritual life, I am a spiritual being enjoying a human life.

Other men's crosses are not my crosses.

I want to tell all those who believe in God that I am not the Chosen One. I also want to tell all the atheists that I am not a history-maker. I am but an ordinary person. Unfortunately, I have not been able to walk the ordinary person's path. My path is, in reality, the journey of a civilization.

What do you think spies are: priests, saints, and martyrs? They’re a squalid procession of vain fools, traitors too, yes; pansies, sadists, and drunkards, people who play cowboys and Indians to brighten their rotten lives. Do you think they sit like monks in London balancing the rights and wrongs?

I desire to go to Hell and not to Heaven. In the former I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks and apostles.

When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned.

But, you know, I feel more fellowship with the defeated than with saints. Heroism and sanctity don't really appeal to me, I imagine. What interests me is being a man.

I would prefer to be a satyr rather than a saint.

Young man, the secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered that I was not God.