“Regardless of the staggering dimensions of the world about us, the density of our ignorance, the risks of catastrophes to come, and our individual weakness within the immense collectivity, the fact remains that we are absolutely free today if we choose to will our existence in its finiteness, a finiteness which is open on the infinite. And in fact, any man who has known real loves, real revolts, real desires, and real will knows quite well that he has no need of any outside guarantee to be sure of his goals; their certitude comes from his own drive.”

“I’ve done everything I wanted to do, writing books, learning about things, but I’ve been swindled all the same because it’s never anything more.”

“I hadn't known Chancel very well, but ten days earlier I had seen him laughing with the others around the Christmas tree. Maybe Robert was right; the distance between the living and the dead really isn't very great. And yet, like myself, those future corpses who were drinking their coffee in silence appeared ashamed to be so alive.”

“For a woman to be taken as seriously as a man she must be three times as effective. Happily, this is not difficult.--Simone de Beauvoir”

“I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.”

“Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable.”

“Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior; she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority.”

“To catch a husband is an art to hold him is a job.”

“One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.”

“Defending the truth is not something one does out of a sense of duty or to allay guilt complexes, but is a reward in itself.”

“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth - and truth rewarded me.”