Lord, you have cursed Cain and Cain’s children: thy will be done. You have allowed men’s hearts to be corrupted, that their intentions be rotten, that their actions putrefy and stink: thy will be done.

As for me, I am mean: that means that I need the suffering of others to exist. A flame. A flame in their hearts. When I am all alone, I am extinguished.

Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you.

Everything is gratuitous, this garden, this city and myself. When you suddenly realize it, it makes you feel sick and everything begins to drift . . . that's nausea.

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

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

A man is involved in life, leaves his impress on it, and outside of that there is nothing.