I dream of a language whose words, like fists, would fracture jaws.

A civilization begins to decline the moment Life becomes its sole obsession.

Progress is the injustice each generation commits with regard to its predecessors.

Nothing sweeter than to drag oneself along behind events; and nothing more reasonable. But without a strong dose of madness, no initiative, no enterprise, no gesture. Reason: the rust of our vitality. It is the madman in us who forces us to adventure; once he abandons us, we are lost; everything depends on him, even our vegetative life; it is he who invites us, who obliges us to breathe, and it is also he who forces our blood to venture through our veins. Once he withdraws, we are alone indeed! We cannot be normal and alive at the same time.

Do I look like someone who has something to do here on earth?' —That's what I'd like to answer the busybodies who inquire into my activities.

Tolerance - the function of an extinguished ardor - tolerance cannot seduce the young.

Knowledge, having irritated and stimulated our appetite for power, will lead us inexorably to our ruin.