"...I am not cut out to be a parent. Besides, I consider marriage a sin and having children a crime. ... It is also my conviction that he who takes upon himself the yoke of marriage is a fool, even more a sinner. A fool, for in so doing he disposes of his freedom without gaining a corresponding compensation; a sinner, for he gives life to children without being able to give them the certainty of happiness. I despise mankind in all its strata; I foresee that our descendants will be far more unhappy than we are — would I not be a sinner if, in spite of this view, I did not care for those who are to come, that is, for those unhappy beings? - No sight fills me with greater melancholy than that of an innocent little child. I cannot help myself to think every time of the sufferings, which it ripens towards. All life is a great nonsense. And when one has toiled and researched for eighty years, one must admit that one has toiled and researched for nothing. If only we knew why we are in this world! But everything is and will be enigmatic for the thinker, and the greatest happiness is to have been born stupid."