Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.

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Abstinence is the worst form of perversion.

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It is the lives we encounter that make life worth living.

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Travel, like dreams, is a door that opens from the real world into a world that is yet to be discovered

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We live always under the weight of the old and odious customs... of our barbarous ancestors.

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Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.

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Whether we are describing a king, an assassin, a thief, an honest man, a prostitute, a nun, a young girl, or a stallholder in a market, it is always ourselves that we are describing.

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The essence of life is the smile of round female bottoms, under the shadow of cosmic boredom.

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You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.

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Of all the passions, the only one that seems respectable to me is the passion for food

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