All the idols made by man, however terrifying they may be, are in point of fact subordinate to him, and that is why he will always have it in his power to destroy them.
في الريف كنت أحس هناك وجود الله أكثر مما كنت أحسه في باريس. و كنت كلما التصقت بالأرض كلماازددت قرباً منه، و كانت كل نزهة صلاة له. كان يخيل إلي أنه على نحو ما بحاجة إلى عينيّ لتكون للأشجار ألوانها. و ح...
All success cloaks a surrender
[...]maintenant je n'ai plus de regrets,parce que les choses qui n'existent pas pour moi,il me semble qu'elles n'existent absolument pas.
Youth and what the Italians so prettily call stamina. The vigor, the fire, that enables you to love and create. When you've lost that, you've lost everything.
Two separate beings, in different circumstances, face to face in freedom and seeking justification of their existence through one another, will always live an adventure full of risk and promise. (p. 2...
The little girl’s sense of secrecy that developed at prepuberty only grows in importance. She closes herself up in fierce solitude: she refuses to reveal to those around her the hidden self that she c...
One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius; and the feminine situation has up to the present rendered this becoming practically impossible.
It is so tiring to hate someone you love.
I went to get a detective story. You have to kill time. But time will kill me too - and there´s the true, preestablished balance.
Every war, every revolution, demands the sacrifice of a generation, of a collectivity, by those who undertake it.
All the opportunities you let slip by! The idea, the inspiration just doesn´t come fast enough. Instead of being open, you´re closed up tight. That´s the worst sin of all - the sin of omission.
A woman alone always seems a little unusual; it is not true that men respect women: they respect each other through their women—wives, mistresses, kept women; when masculine protection no longer exten...
Those interested in perpetuating present conditions are always in tears about the marvelous past that is about to disappear without having so much as a smile for the young future.
The thing that attracted me about philosophy was that it went straight to essentials. I had never liked fiddling detail; I perceived the general significance of things rather than their singularities,...
وكانت رتابة حياة الكبار تثير شفقتي دائماً , وحين أدركت أن هذه الحياة ستكون عما قريب من نصيبي , أستولى علي الضيق
You have never had any confidence in him. And if he has no confidence in himself it is because he sees himself through your eyes.
To paint, to write, to engage in politics—these are not merely ‘sublimations’; here we have aims that are willed for their own sakes. To deny it is to falsify all human history.
There is no such thing as a natural death: nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the world into question. All men must die: but for every man his death is an accident...
The way I approached a question, my habit of mind, the way I looked at things, what I took for granted - all this was myself and it did not seem to me that I could alter it.