History is the long, difficult and confused dream of Mankind.

In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

The less one, as a result of objective or subjective conditions, has to come into contact with people, the better off one is for it.

In truth the most striking figure for the relation of the two is that of the strong blind man carrying the sighted lame man on his shoulders.

[T]he appropriate form of address between man and man ought to be, not monsieur, sir, but fellow sufferer, compagnon de miseres.

The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him.