"That which does not kill us makes us stronger."
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages."
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"In heaven, all the interesting people are missing."
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"The irrationality of a thing is no argument against its existence, rather a condition of it."
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"The worst readers are those who behave like plundering troops: they take away a few things they can use, dirty and confound the remainder, and revile the whole."
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

"Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are. "
— Søren Kierkegaard

"The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed."
— Søren Kierkegaard (The Sickness Unto Death)

"Once you label me you negate me."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"Sex pleasure in women is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken."
— Simone de Beauvoir

"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced."
— Søren Kierkegaard

"Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come,we are not."
— Epicurus

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
— Albert Camus

"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question."
— Albert Camus (The Fall)

"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."
— Albert Camus

"An intellectual? Yes. And never deny it. An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself. I like this, because I am happy to be both halves, the watcher and the watched. "Can they be brought together?" This is a practical question. We must get down to it. "I despise intelligence" really means: "I cannot bear my doubts."
— Albert Camus

"La vérité c'est comme la lumière, aveugle. Le mensonge, au contraire, est un beau crépuscule qui met chaque objet en valeur."
— Albert Camus

"Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre."
— Albert Camus

"Always there comes an hour when one is weary of one's work and devotion to duty, and all one craves for is a loved face, the warmth and wonder of a loving heart."
— Albert Camus

"She was wearing a pair of my pajamas with the sleeves rolled up. When she laughed I wanted her again. A minute later she asked me if I loved her. I told her it didn't mean anything but that I didn't think so. She looked sad. But as we were fixing lunch, and for no apparent reason, she laughed in such a way that I kissed her."
— Albert Camus

"She was breathing deeply, she forgot the cold, the weight of beings, the insane or static life, the long anguish of living or dying. After so many years running from fear, fleeing crazily, uselessly, she was finally coming to a halt. At the same time she seemed to be recovering her roots, and the sap rose anew in her body, which was no longer trembling. Pressing her whole belly against the parapet, leaning toward the wheeling sky, she was only waiting for her pounding heart to settle down, and for the silence to form in her. The last constellations of stars fell in bunches a little lower on the horizon of the desert, and stood motionless. Then, with an unbearable sweetness, the waters of the night began to fill her, submerging the cold, rising gradually to the center of her being, and overflowing wave upon wave to her moaning mouth. A moment later, the whole sky stretched out above her as she lay with her back against the cold earth."
— Albert Camus

"An intellectual is someone whose mind is free time."
— Albert Camus

"One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius; and the feminine situation has up to the present rendered this becoming practically impossible."
— Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex)

"It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living."
— Simone de Beauvoir