There is no love apart from the deeds of love; no potentiality of love other than that which is manifested in loving.

In wanting freedom we discover that it depends entirely on the freedom of others, and that the freedom of others depends on ours. . . I am obliged to want others to have freedom at the same time that I want my own freedom. I can take freedom as my goal only if I take that of others as a goal as well.

My pessimism has never been flabby.

So much torture, bloodshed, deceit. You cannot make your young people practice torture twenty-four hours a day and not expect to pay a price for it.

I was escaping from Nature and at last becoming myself, that Other whom I was aspiring to be in the eyes of others.

Something begins in order to end: an adventure doesn't let itself be extended it achieves significance only through its death.

Better to have beasts that let themselves be killed than men who run away.