You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.

Each of us is born with a share of purity, predestined to be corrupted by our commerce with mankind, by that sin against solitude.

You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.

Insomnia is a vertiginous lucidity that can convert paradise itself into a place of torture.

In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws.

Thinking should be like musical meditation. Has any philosopher pursued a thought to its limits the way Bach or Beethoven develop and exhaust a musical theme? Even after having read the most profound thinkers, one still feels the need to begin anew. Only music gives definitive answers.

So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes.