I am finishing a biography of [Gustave] Flaubert. Because he is the opposite of what I am. One needs to rub up against argument.

Total war is no longer war waged by all members of one national community against all those of another. It is total... because it may well involve the whole world.

We will freedom for freedom’s sake, in and through particular circumstances. And in thus willing freedom, we discover that it depends entirely upon the freedom of others and that the freedom of others depends upon our own. Obviously, freedom as the definition of a man does not depend upon others, but as soon as there is a commitment, I am obliged to will the liberty of others at the same time as my own. I cannot make liberty my aim unless I make that of others equally my aim.

Is there really nothing, nothing left of me?

I am not asking for sensational revelations, but I would like to sense the meaning of that minute, to feel it's urgency.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

Ideas come in pairs and they contradict one another; their opposition is the principal engine of reflection.