If the only significant history of human thought were to be written, it would have to be the history of its successive regrets and its impotences.

Integrity needs no rules.

People don't love each other at our age, Marthe—they please each other, that's all. Later on, when you're old and impotent, you can love someone. At our age, you just think you do. That's all it is.

[Many artists], even the greatest ones, are not sure of their own existence. So they search for proof, they judge, they condemn. It strengthens them, it is the beginnings of existence. They are alone!

Every great work makes the human face more admirable and richer, and this is its whole secret.

All men have a sweetness in their life. That is what helps them go on. It is towards that they turn when they feel too worn out.

It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.