Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls.

Write books only if you are going to say in them the things you would never dare confide to anyone.

A golden rule: to leave an incomplete image of oneself.

It is because we are all imposters that we endure each other.

Man starts over again everyday, in spite of all he knows, against all he knows.

The fact that life has no meaning is a reason to live - moreover, the only one.

Truths begin by a conflict with the police - and end by calling them in.

You are done for - a living dead man - not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the mystery of life.

A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed.

A distant enemy is always preferable to one at the gate.

Consciousness is much more than the thorn, it is the dagger in the flesh.

Each concession we make is accompanied by an inner diminution of which we are not immediately conscious.

Ennui is the echo in us of time tearing itself apart.

God - a disease we imagine we are cured of because no one dies of it nowadays.

I foresee the day when we shall read nothing but telegrams and prayers.

I have no nationality - the best possible status for an intellectual.

Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui.

No one can enjoy freedom without trembling.

Philosophy: Impersonal anxiety; refuge among anemic ideas.

So long as man is protected by madness - he functions - and flourishes.