God's world is a good place. The one thing not good in it is we. How little justice and humility there is in us. How little we understand true patriotism!

Everything on earth is beautiful, everything -- except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.

You will not become a saint through other people's sins.

You've only got to begin to do anything to find out how few honest, honourable people there are. Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I think: "Oh Lord, you've given us huge forests, infinite fields, and endless horizons, and we, living here, ought really to be giants.

To advise is not to compel.

Faith is an aptitude of the spirit. It is, in fact, a talent: you must be born with it.

Oh, I have now a mania for shortness. Whatever I read - my own or other people's works - it all seems to me not short enough.