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

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”

“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn't.”

“It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my hear...”

“And, on a wide view, I could see that it makes little difference whether one dies at the age of thirty or threescore and ten—since, in either case, other men and women will continue living,...”

“As if this great outburst of anger had purged all my ills, killed all my hopes, I looked up at the mass of signs and stars in the night sky and laid myself open for the first time to the ben...”

“Mother used to say that however miserable one is, there’s always something to be thankful for. And each morning, when the sky brightened and light began to flood my cell, I agreed with her.”

“J'écoutais mon cœur. Je ne pouvais imaginer que ce bruit qui m'accompagnait depuis si longtemps pût jamais cesser.”