We are all exceptional cases.

The Fall, 1957

A person I knew used to divide human beings into three categories: Those who prefer to have nothing to hide rather than being obliged to lie, those who prefer lying to having nothing to hide, and finally, those who like both lying and the hidden.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

Lyrical and Critical Essays

Let us call it by the name which, for lack of any other nobility, will at least give the nobility of truth, and let us recognize it for what it essentially is: a revenge.

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.

The Rebel, 1951

I’ll tell you a great big secret, mon cher. Do not wait for the Last Judgment, it takes place every day.

The Fall, 1956

We turn toward God only to obtain the impossible.

The Myth of Sisyphus, 1955

Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Walk beside me and just be my friend.

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.

“Resistance, Rebellion and Death”

Freedom is not a reward or a decoration that is celebrated with champagne. Nor yet a gift, a box of dainties designed to make you lick your chops. Oh, no! It’s a chore, on the contrary, and a long-distance race, quite solitary and very exhausting.

The Fall