Paneloux is a man of learning, a scholar. He hasn't come in contact with death; that's why he can speak with such assurance of the truth-with a capital T. But every country priest who visits his parishioners and has heard a man gasping for breath on his deathbed thinks as I do. He'd try to relieve human suffering before trying to point out its goodness.

In the end, we would like not to be guilty while at the same time being dispensed of the effort of purifying ourselves. Not enough cynicism and not enough virtue.

There is not a single true work of art that has not in the end added to the inner freedom insight and life of each person who has known and loved it.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

For ever, I shall be a stranger to myself.

There is so much stubborn hope in the human heart.

I'd buy myself a cabin on the beach, I'd put some glue in my navel, and I'd stick a flag in there. Then I'd wait to see which way the wind was blowing.