I explained to him, however, that my nature was such that my physical needs often got in the way of my feelings.

In Oran, as elsewhere, for want of time and thought, people have to love one another without knowing it.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

People believe a man is in distress because his loved one dies in one day. But his real pain is less futile: it is that he finds out that sadness too does not last. Even pain has no meaning.

In the world there is, parallel to the force of death and constraint, an enormous force of persuasion that is called culture.

There is only one class of men, the privileged class

And for all his life it would be kindness and love that made him cry, never pain or persecution, which on the contrary only reinforced his spirit and his resolution.