The realization that life is absurdand cannot be an end, but only abeginning. This is a truth nearly allgreat minds have taken as their starting point.

No lady is ever a gentleman.

I fear You and, yes, I love You: and yet I cannot believe. Why could You not let me believe, where so many believed? Or else, why could You not let me deride, as the remainder derided so noisily? O God, why could You not let me have faith? for You gave me no faith in anything, not even in nothingness. It was not fair.

While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sands of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.

The desire to write perfectly of beautiful happenings is, as the saying runs, old as the hills — and as immortal.

I am Manuel. I have lived in the loneliness which is common to all men, but the difference is that I have known it. Now it is necessary for me, as it is necessary for all men, to die in this same loneliness, and I know that there is no help for it.

At all events, I do not mean to leave it unaltered.