“Some things I loved have vanished. A great many others have been given to me.”

Oppression tries to defend itself by its utility.

To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.

If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male’s arrogance made it a discussion.

All oppression creates a state of war. And this is no exception.

Literature took the place in my life that had once been occupied by religion: it absorbed me entirely, and transfigured my life.

A day in which I don’t write leaves a taste of ashes.

The characteristic feature of all ethics is to consider human life as a game that can be won or lost and to teach man the means of winning.

I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end.

History took hold of me and never let me go thereafter.

No one is more arrogant toward women, more aggressive or scornful, than the man who is anxious about his virility.

Sex pleasure in women is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken.

It is so tiring to hate someone you love.

Man may reproach women for their dissimulation, but his complacency must be great indeed for him to be so constantly duped.

I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.

Every individual concerned to justify his existence feels that his existence involves an undefined need to transcend himself, to engage in freely chosen projects.

Whether you think of it as heavenly or as earthly, if you love life immortality is no consultation for death.

Everyone you meet is a part of your journey, but not all of them are meant to stay in your life. Some people are just passing through to bring you gifts; either they’re blessings or lessons.

Blessed is the covenant of love, the covenant of mercy, useless light behind the terror, deathless song in the house of night.

Count your blessings, not your problems. Count your own blessings, not someone else’s. Remember that jealousy is when you count someone else’s blessings instead of your own.

More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.

Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Reflect upon your present blessings.

My eyes are a blessing yet in times like this I envy the blind.