Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

Every great work makes the human face more admirable and richer, and this is its whole secret.

If God did not exist, we should have to invent him. If God did exist, we should have to abolish Him.

Beauty, no doubt, does not make revolutions. But a day will come when revolutions will have need of beauty.

how hard it must be to live only with what one knows and what one remembers, cut off from what one hopes for!

…there's no question of heroism in all this. It's a matter of common decency. That's an idea which may make some people smile, but the only means of fighting a plague is - common decency.

As for those whose role it is to love us - I mean, relatives and in-laws (what a word)- It's a different tune. They find the right word, but it's usually the one that wounds.