Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.
Blessed are the hearts that can bend they shall never be broken.
By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.
It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.
Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
To be famous, in fact, one has only to kill one's landlady.
He who despairs of the human condition is a coward, but he who has hope for it is a fool.
It is normal to give away a little of one's life in order not to lose it all.
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.
Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
Don't walk behind me I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives... inside ourselves.
All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.
The society based on production is only productive, not creative.
The myth of unlimited production brings war in its train as inevitably as clouds announce a storm.
Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.
Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.
As a remedy to life in society I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.
Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.
Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
There is the good and the bad, the great and the low, the just and the unjust. I swear to you that all that will never change.
There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.
When you have really exhausted an experience you always reverence and love it.
Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.
We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible.
To abandon oneself to principles is really to die - and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love.
The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.
Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.
How can sincerity be a condition of friendship? A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.
The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.
A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.
Without freedom, no art art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.
It's a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.
Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely.
You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.
Man wants to live, but it is useless to hope that this desire will dictate all his actions.
To know oneself, one should assert oneself.
I know of only one duty, and that is to love.
But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?
To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.
Culture: the cry of men in face of their destiny.
Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.
Real nobility is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference.