There was a time when time did not yet exist. … The rejection of birth is nothing but the nostalgia for this time before time.

I live only because it is in my power to die when I choose to: without the idea of suicide, I'd have killed myself right away.

Under each formula lies a corpse.

The curtain of the universe is moth-eaten, and through its holes we see nothing now but mask and ghost.

To possess a high degree of consciousness, to be always aware of yourself in relation to the world, to live in the permanent tension of knowledge, means to be lost for life.

True moral elegance consists in the art of disguising one's victories as defeats.

We would not be interested in human beings if we did not have the hope of someday meeting someone worse off than ourselves.