From Paul to Stalin, the popes who have chosen Caesar have prepared the way for Caesars who quickly learn to despise popes.

Instead of killing and dying in order to produce the being that we are not, we have to live and let live in order to create what we are.

Martyrs, my friend, have to choose between being forgotten, mocked or used. As for being understood: never.

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest -- whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories -- comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer.

To insure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough, a police force is needed as well.

To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely evil amounts to saying that society is absolutely good, and no-one in his right mind will believe this today.

Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.

The rebel can never find peace. He knows what is good and, despite himself, does evil. The value which supports him is never given to him once and for all -- he must fight to uphold it, unceasingly.

What is a rebel? A man who says no.

A sub-clerk in the post-office is the equal of a conqueror if consciousness is common to them.