In the world today, only a philosophy of eternity could justify non-violence.

Art and revolt will die only with the last man.

When the throne of God is overturned, the rebel realizes that it is now his own responsibility to create the justice, order, and unity that he sought in vain within his own condition, and in this way to justify the fall of God. Then begins the desperate effort to create, at the price of crime and murder if necessary, the dominion of man.

Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.

It should be pointed out for our own guidance in the West that the continual signing of manifestoes and protests is one of the surest ways of undermining the efficacy and dignity of the intellectual. There exists a permanent blackmail that we all know and that we must have the often solitary courage to resist.

We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.

So the thing that bothered me most was that the condemned man had to hope the machine would work the first time.