I pride myself on my capacity to perceive the transitory character of everything. An odd gift which spoiled all my joys; better: all my sensations. I have decided not to oppose anyone ever again, since I have noticed that I always end by resembling my latest enemy. |
I seem to myself, among civilized men, an intruder, a troglodyte enamored of decrepitude, plunged into subversive prayers. |
I'm simply an accident. Why take it all so seriously? |
If a man has not, by the time he is 30, yielded to the fascination of every form of extremism, I don't know if he is to be admired or scorned - a saint or a corpse. |
If our fellow men could be aware of our opinions about them, love, friendship, and devotion would be forever erased from the dictionaries; and if we had the courage to confront the doubts we timidly conceive about ourselves, none of us would utter an 'I' without shame. |
If we could see ourselves as others see us, we would vanish on the spot. |
If, at the limit, you can rule without crime, you cannot do so without injustices. |
Imaginary pains are by far the most real we suffer, since we feel a constant need for them and invent them because there is no way of doing without them. |
In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws. |
In every man sleeps a prophet, and when he wakes there is a little more evil in the world. |
In most cases we attach ourselves to God in order to take revenge on life, to punish it, to signify we can do without it, that we have found something better, and we also attach ourselves to God in horror of men. |
In order to have the stuff of a tyrant, a certain mental derangement is necessary. |
Intelligence flourishes only in the ages when belief withers. |
Isn't history ultimately the result of our fear of boredom? |
It is an understatement to say that in this society injustices abound: In truth it is itself the quintessence of injustice. |