"In adolescence, I hated life and was continually on the verge of suicide, from which, however, I was restrained by the desire to know more mathematics. Now, on the contrary, I enjoy life; I might almost say that with every year that passes I enjoy it more. This is due partly to having discovered what were the things that I most desired and having gradually acquired many of these things. Partly it is due to having successfully dismissed certain objects of desire... as essentially unattainable. But very largely it is due to a diminishing preoccupation with myself... I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention increasingly upon external objects."