It is not a matter of indifference whether we like oysters or clams, snails or shrimp, if only we know how to unravel the existential significance of these foods.

I have always been happy. Even if I had been more honest with regard to myself at that moment I should still have written La Nausee.

There it is: I am gently slipping into the water's depths, towards fear.

When one does nothing, one believes oneself responsible for everything.

I must be without remorse or regrets as I am without excuse; for from the instant of my upsurge into being, I carry the weight of the world by myself alone without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away from this responsibility for an instant.

Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.

Love or hatred calls for self-surrender. He cuts a fine figure, the warm-blooded, prosperous man, solidly entrenched in his well-being, who one fine day surrenders all to love—or to hatred; himself, his house, his land, his memories.