On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.

One grows out of pity when it's useless.

When the soul suffers too much, it develops a taste for misfortune.

Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.

The loss of love is the loss of all rights, even though one had them all.

Every artist preserves deep within him a single source from which, throughout his lifetime, he draws what he is, and what he says. When the source dries up, the work withers and crumbles.

There will be no lasting peace either in the heart of individuals or in social customs until death is outlawed.