Nothing comes of severity if there be no leanings towards a change of heart. And if there be natural leanings towards a change of heart, what need for severity?

One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed.

To be a man is to feel that one's own stone contributes to building the edifice of the world.

One cannot build life from refrigerators, politics, credit statements and crossword puzzles. That is impossible. Nor can one exist for any length of time without poetry, without color, without love.

Horror causes men to clench their fists, and in horror men join together.

One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform. Accepted authority rests first of all on reason.

Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.