Our first intuitions are the true ones.

A regret understood by no one: the regret to be a pessimist. It’s not easy to be on the wrong foot with life.

Self-conscious rejection of the absolute is the best way to resist God; thus illusion, the substance of life, is saved.

Each concession we make is accompanied by an inner diminution of which we are not immediately conscious.

Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it.

The literary man? An indiscreet man, who devaluates his miseries, divulges them, tells them like so many beads: immodesty-the sideshow of second thoughts-is his rule; he offers himself.

If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot.