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The tree of possibilities: life as it reveals itself to a man arriving, astonished, at the threshold of his adult life: an abundant treetop canopy fil...more

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When he told F. of his disgust at the eyelid's movement, he must have been sixteen. When he decided to study medicine, he must have been nineteen; by ...more

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Every novel says to the reader: “Things are not as simple as you think.” That is the novel’s eternal truth, but it grows steadily harder to hear amid ...more

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The uniform is that which we do not choose, that which is assigned to us; it is the certitude of the universal against the precariousness of the indiv...more

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There comes a moment when the image of our life parts company with the life itself, stands free, and, little by little, begins to rule us. Already in ...more

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I thought of the fate of Descartes’ famous formulation: man as ‘master and proprietor of nature.’ Having brought off miracles in science and technolog...more

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In the presence of Esch, values have hidden their faces. Order, loyalty, sacrifice—he cherishes all these words, but exactly what do they represent? S...more

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She wants to have her notebooks so that the flimsy framework of events, as she has constructed them in her school notebook, will be provided with wall...more

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You certainly remember this scene from dozens of films: a boy and a girl are running hand in hand in a beautiful spring (or summer) landscape. Running...more

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And think about the precise meaning of that term: a Narcissus is not proud. A proud man has disdain for other people, he undervalues them. The Narciss...more

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Do stories, apart from happening, being, have something to say? For all my skepticism, some trace of irrational superstition did survive in me, the st...more

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How would I explain to him that I couldn’t make peace with him? How would I explain that if I did I would immediately lose my inner balance? How would...more

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Is not an event in fact more significant and noteworthy the greater the number of fortuities necessary to bring it about? ... Everything that occurs o...more