I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for modern man: he fornicated and read the papers. After that vigorous definition, the subject will be, if I may say so, exhausted.

More from The Fall

• Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.
• God is not needed to create guilt or to punish. Our fellow men suffice, aided by ourselves.
• A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.
• A sub-clerk in the post office is the equal of a conqueror if consciousness is common to them.
• But perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than in the ordeal it demands of a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality.
• Don’t walk in front of me because I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me because I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.