...we rarely confide in those who are better than we. Rather, we are more inclined to flee their society. Most often, on the other hand, we confess to those who are like us and who share our weaknesses. Hence we don't want to improve ourselves and be bettered, for we should first have to be judged in default. We merely wish to be pitied and encouraged in the course we have chosen. In short, we should like, at the same time, to cease being guilty and yet not to make the effort of cleansing ourselves.

In the vast reaches of the dry, cold night, thousands of stars were constantly appearing, and their sparkling icicles, loosened at once, began to slip gradually toward the horizon.

Suffering gives us no special rights.

What made me run away was doubtless not so much the fear of settling down, but of settling down permanently in something ugly.

he's incapable of suffering for a long time, or being happy for a long time. Which means that he's incapable of anything really worth while.

Nature is a burning and frigid, transparent and limited universe in which nothing is possible but everything is given.

Everybody knows life isn't worth living.