No one dies of hunger, thirst, or life. One can only die from renunciation.

Modern society is a society of cops. We are revolutionaries because the police are the supreme force of this society. We are not for another society because the police are the supreme force of all societies. We are not nihilists because we do not grant power to anyone.

We are lettrists for want of something better. We are aware of the eminently regressive character of all salaried work. The non-resolution of complex problems determines a period of waiting in which all practical activity constitutes cowardice because life must be asymptotic and benevolent.

All things considered, we are geniuses: know it once and for all.

(Published in Internationale lettriste #3, August 1953. Translated from the French by NOT BORED!. Translation published in Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents, edited by Anneka Lenssen, Sarah Rogers and Nada Shabout, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, no date [2018].)