Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.

What never vary are the necessities of being in the world, of having to labor and to die there.

All human actions are equivalent... and all are on principle doomed to failure.

On my way to the office in the morning, there are, in front of me, behind me, other men going to their jobs. I see them; if I dared, I would smile at them. I think to myself that I am a socialist, that they are the purpose of my life, of my efforts and that they do not know it yet.

What I lacked [in La Nausee] was a sense of reality. I have changed since. I have slowly learned to experience reality.

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.

I construct my memories with my present. I am lost, abandoned in the present. I try in vain to rejoin the past: I cannot escape.