He was expressing his certainty that my appeal would be granted, but I was carrying the burden of a sin from which I had to free myself. According to him, human justice was nothing and divine justice was everything. I pointed out it was the former that had condemned me.

I make myself strict rules in order to correct my nature. But it is my nature that I finally obey.

... habit starts at the second crime. At the first one, something is ending.

Our civilization survives in the complacency of cowardly or malignant minds -- a sacrifice to the vanity of aging adolescents

In order to exist just once in the world, it is necessary never again to exist.

I was comfortable in all, I admit, but at the same time, nothing satisfied me. Each joy made me seek another.

Believe me, religions are on the wrong track the moment they moralize and fulminate commandments. God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.