Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

“If time frightens us, this is because it works out the problem and the solution comes afterwards.”

“Every ideology is contrary to human psychology.”

“The world evades us because it becomes itself again. That stage scenery masked by habit becomes what it is. It withdraws at a distance from us.”

“The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth.”

“There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.”

“Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage.”

“Your success and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them. But to be happy it is essential not to be too concerned with others. Consequently, there is no escape. Happy and judged, or absolved and wretched.”