Respectable society believed in God in order to avoid having to speak about him.

To love is never just to love since it is also to will to love, and ... to love in spite of oneself, to allow oneself to be overcome by one's love.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

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.

In Les Mots I explain the origin of my madness, of my neurosis. This analysis may help the young who dream of writing.

Your scare me rather. My reflection in the glass never did that; of course, I knew it so well. Like something I had tamed...I'm going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.

Philosophy which does not help to illuminate the process of the liberation of the oppressed should be rejected.