I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.