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

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.

She would never change, but one day at the touch of a fingertip she would fall to dust.

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