Each thought becomes an anxiety in my brain. I am becoming the ugliest of all things: a busy man.

True kindness presupposes the faculty of imagining as one's own the suffering and joys of others.

The thing I am most aware of is my limits. And this is natural; for I never, or almost never, occupy the middle of my cage; my whole being surges toward the bars.

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.

We prefer to go deformed and distorted all our lives rather than not resemble the portrait of ourselves which we ourselves have first drawn. It’s absurd. We run the risk of warping what’s best in us

Only fools don't contradict themselves

It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.