Therefore the misfortune which comes to man as a result of the fact that he was a child is that his freedom was first concealed from him and that all his life he will be nostalgic for the time when he did not know it's exigencies.

I've always been keenly aware of the passing of time. I've always thought that I was old. Even when I was twelve, I thought it was awful to be thirty. I felt that something was lost. At the same time, I was aware of what I could gain, and certain periods of my life have taught me a great deal. But, in spite of everything, I've always been haunted by the passing of time and by the fact that death keeps closing in on us.

Existence must be asserted in the present if one does not want all life to be defined as an escape toward nothingness.

Literature in France seems to be undergoing a crisis now, and nothing comes immediately to mind.

If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.

All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them.

there is a poetry in making preserves; the housewife has caught duration in the snare of sugar, she has enclosed life in jars.