The man who has no inner life is the slave of his surroundings

Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.

An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.

Action is only coarsened thought; thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.

It is by teaching that we teach ourselves, by relating that we observe, by affirming that we examine, by showing that we look, by writing that we think, by pumping that we draw water into...

The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.

Destiny has two ways of crushing us — by refusing our wishes and by fulfilling them.

Charm is the quality in others that makes us more satisfied with ourselves.

I’m not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You’re as old as you feel.

To do easily what is difficult for others is the mark of talent. To do what is impossible for talent is the mark of genius.

Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the ploughshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the...

To be always ready a man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied

Man becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.

The man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides.

Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude. Gratitude is the completion of thankfulness. Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.

Analysis kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no more.

Liberty, equality – bad principles! The only true principle for humanity is justice; and justice to the feeble is protection and kindness.

The obscure only exists that it may cease to exist. In it lies the opportunity of all victory and all progress. Whether it call itself fatality, death, night, or matter, it is the pedestal of...

The best path through life is the highway.

Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest.

To depersonalize man is the dominant drift of our times.

I do not deny the rights of democracy, but I have no illusions as to the uses that will be made of those rights so long as wisdom is rare and pride abundant

Uncertainty is the refuge of hope.

He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature… is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.

A lively, disinterested, persistent liking for truth is extraordinarily rare. Action and faith enslave thought, both of them in order not to be troubled or inconvenienced by reflection, criticism or doubt.

Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past – a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

It is not what he had, or even what he does, which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary – they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they...

Every life is a profession of faith, and exercises an inevitable and silent influence.

To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a...

Time and space are fragments of the infinite for the use of the finite creatures.

A thousand things advance; nine hundred and ninety-nine retreat: that is progress.

Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.

The thirst for truth is not a French passion

Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.

It is not what he had, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

The unfinished is nothing.

We must have the courage to be happy

The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings.

If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.

To win true peace, a man needs to feel himself directed, pardoned, and sustained by a supreme power, to feel himself in the right road, at the point where God would have him be –...

Women wish to be loved not because they are pretty, or good, or well bred, or graceful, or intelligent, but because they are themselves.

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.

We only understand that which already is within us.

True love is that which ennobles the personality, fortifies the heart, and sanctifies the existence.

Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall...

The test of every religious, political, or educational system is the man that it forms.