One cannot become a saint when one works sixteen hours a day.

We do not wish to say only that a man is responsible for his own individuality, but that he is responsible for that of all men.

All the same, they [books] do serve some purpose. Culture doesn't save anything or anyone, it doesn't justify. But it's a product of man: he projects himself into it, he recognizes himself in it; that critical mirror alone offers him his image.

There are two kinds of existentialist; first, those who are Christian...and on the other hand the atheistic existentialists, among whom...I class myself. What they have in common is that they think that existence precedes essence, or, if you prefer, that subjectivity must be the turning point.

I am neither virgin nor priest enough to play with the inner life.

What do I care about Jupiter? Justice is a human issue, and I do not need a god to teach it to me.

There is a universe behind and before him. And the day is approaching when closing the last book on the last shelf on the far left; he will say to himself, "now what?