To hope is to contradict the future.

We rightly scorn those who have no made use of their defects, who have not exploited their deficiencies, and have not been enriched by their losses, as we despise any man who does not suffer at being a man or simply at being. Hence no graver insult can be inflicted than to call someone 'happy', no greater flattery than to grant him a 'vein of melancholy'... This is because gaiety is link to no important action and because, except for the mad, no one laughs when he is alone.

An individual dies ... when, instead of taking risks and hurling himself toward being, he cowers within, and takes refuge there.

Never to have occasion to take a position, to make up one's mind, or to define oneself - there is no wish I make more often.

To Live signifies to believe and hope - to lie and to lie to oneself.

Boredom dismantles the mind, renders it superficial, out at the seams, saps it from within and dislocates it.

As the years pass, the number of those we can communicate with diminishes. When there is no longer anyone to talk to, at last we will be as we were before stooping to a name.