“To be a heretic to-day is almost a human obligation.”

“Heretics are the only [bitter] remedy against the entropy of human thought.("Literature, Revolution, and Entropy")”

“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but ... life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”

“The world is kept alive only by heretics: the heretic Christ, the heretic Copernicus, the heretic Tolstoy. Our symbol of faith is heresy. (“Tomorrow”)”

“It ought to be an offense to be excruciating and unfunny in circumstances where your audience is almost morally obliged to enthuse.”

“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”