Man is always a wizard to man, and the social world is at first magical.

Our responsibility is much greater than we might have supposed, because it involves all mankind.

I am a man, Jupiter, and each man must invent his own path.

Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.

Many young people today do not concern themselves with style. They think that what one says should be said simply and that is all. For me, style - which does not exclude simplicity, quite the opposite - is above all a way of saying three or four things in one. There is the simple sentence, with its immediate meaning, and then at the same time, below this immediate meaning, other meanings are organized. If one is not capable of giving language this plurality of meaning, then it is not worth the trouble to write.

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

Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.