Accept life, take it as it is? Stupid. The means of doing otherwise? Far from our having to take it, it is life that possesses us and on occasion shuts our mouths.

My great idea is that we must forgive the Pope. First of all, he needs it more than anyone else. Besides, it is the only way of placing oneself above him.

Purely historical thought is therefore nihilistic: it wholeheartedly accepts the evil of history and in this way is opposed to rebellion.

... We need the sweet pain of anticipation to tell us we are really alive.

A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.

The end of their passion consists of loving uselessly at the moment when it is pointless.

Utopia is that which is in contradiction with reality.