Great persecutors are recruited among martyrs whose heads haven't been cut off.

Afflicted with existence, each man endures like an animal the consequences which proceed from it. Thus, in a world where everything is detestable, hatred becomes huger than the world and, having transcended its object, cancels itself out.

Much more than our other needs and endeavors, it is sexuality that puts us on an even footing with our kind: the more we practice it, the more we become like everyone else: it is in the performance of a reputedly bestial function that we prove our status as citizens: nothing is more public than the sexual act.

Ambition is a drug that makes its addicts potential madmen.

If there is anyone who owes everything to Bach, it is certainly God.

No one can keep his griefs in their prime; they use themselves up.

If we manage to last in spite of everything, it is because our infirmities are so many and so contradictory that they cancel each other out.