“I was wrong, after all, to tell you that the essential was to avoid judgement. The essential is being able to permit oneself everything, even if, from time to time, one has to profess vociferously one's own infamy.”

“Physical jealousy is a result of the imagination at the same time as being a self-judgment. One attributes to the rival the nasty thoughts one had oneself in the same circumstances.”

“One plays at being immortal and after a few weeks one doesn't even know whether or not one can hang on till the next day.”

“In short, for me to live happily it was essential for the creatures I chose not to live at all. They must receive their life, sporadically, only at my bidding.”

“Inasmuch as every judge some day ends up as a penitent, one had to travel the road in the opposite direction and practice the profession of penitent to be able to end up as a judge.”

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

“Thus and thus only the Christian could face the problem squarely and, scorning subterfuge, pierce to the heart of the supreme issues, the essential choice. And his choice would be to believe everything, so as not be forced into denying everything.”