…the book creates meaning, the meaning creates life.

The art of living has no history: it does not evolve: the pleasure which vanishes vanishes for good, there is no substitute for it. Other pleasures come, which replace nothing. No progress in pleasures, nothing but mutations.

It must always be considered as though spoken by a character in a novel

Why is it better to last than to burn?

The incapacity to name is a good symptom of disturbance.

Other countries drink to get drunk, and this is accepted by everyone; in France, drunkenness is a consequence, never an intention. A drink is felt as the spinning out of a pleasure, not as the necessary cause of an effect which is sought: wine is not only a philtre, it is also the leisurely act of drinking.

…the book creates meaning, the meaning creates life.