God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.

Let's not beat around the bush; I love life — that's my real weakness. I love it so much that I am incapable of imagining what is not life.

Martyrs must choose between being forgotten, mocked, or made use of. As for being understood—never!

Thus I progressed on the surface of life, in the realm of words as it were, never in reality. All those books barely read, those friends barely loved, those cities barely visited, those women barely possessed! I went through the gestures out of boredom or absent-mindedness. Then came the human beings, they wanted to cling, but there was nothing to cling to, and that was unfortunate – for them. As for me, I forgot. I never remembered anything but myself.

In order to cease being a doubtful case, one has to cease being, that's all.

To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.

There is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is misfortune in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this misfortune. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that nevertheless gave birth to it.

La vraie générosité envers l'avenir consiste à tout donner au présent.

L'homme enfin n'est pas entièrement coupable — il n'a pas commencé l'histoire — ni tout à fait innocent, puisqu'il la continue.

Art, at least, teaches us that man cannot be explained by history alone and that he also finds a reason for his existence in the order of nature.