For the time being I have seen enough of living things, of dogs, of men, of all flabby masses which move spontaneously.

From the period when I wrote La Nausea I wanted to create a morality. My evolution consists in my no longer dreaming of doing so.

[Stéphane Mallarmé] theory of the hermetic is a mistake, but he can be only difficult to read when he has difficult things to say.

Torture is senseless violence, born in fear... torture costs human lives but does not save them. We would almost be too lucky if these crimes were the work of savages: the truth is that torture makes torturers.

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

One does not adopt a new idea, one slips into it.

There is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love other than that which is manifested in loving.