"The trace is not a presence but a simulacrum of a presence that dislocates, displaces, and refers beyond itself."

"The history of metaphysics is the history of the belief in presence."

"There are only contexts without any center of absolute anchorage."

"The book is not a self-sufficient totality."

"We must begin wherever we are and the thought of the trace, which is not a concept, is already inscribed in the text."