Idleness makes hours pass slowly and years swiftly. Activity makes the hours short and the years long.

Childhood is not only the childhood we really had but also the impressions we formed of it in our adolescence and maturity. That is why childhood seems so long. Probably every period of life is multiplied by our reflections upon the next.

The only way to escape the abyss is to look at it, gauge it, sound it out and descend into it.

A work settles nothing, just as the labor of a whole generation settles nothing. Sons, and the morrow, always start afresh.

To know the world, one must construct it

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference. Perhaps this is why we always love madly someone who treats us with indifference.

Will power is only the tensile strength of one's own disposition. One cannot increase it by a single ounce.