Suffering is the substance of life and the root of personality, for it is only suffering that makes us persons.

If a person never contradicts himself, it must be that he says nothing.

And usually [the philosopher] philosophizes either in order to resign himself to life, or to seek some finality in it, or to distract himself and forget his griefs, or for pastime and amusement.

Fascism is cured by reading, and racism is cured by traveling

My aim is to agitate and disturb people. I'm not selling bread; I'm selling yeast.

Science says: 'We must live,' and seeks the means of prolonging, increasing, facilitating and amplifying life, of making it tolerable and acceptable, wisdom says: 'We must die,' and seeks how to make us die well.

My work...is to shatter the faith of men here, there, and everywhere, faith in affirmation, faith in negation, and faith in abstention from faith, and this for the sake of faith in faith itself.