It seems enormous to me that we have the idea of eternity, of justice, of purity, of beauty, when everything that we see is so far from all that! Who has put those visions into our heads? The soul that knows so much more than what it sees; the soul that comes from far and goes far, and to whom limits make no difference!

Never can a room look comfortable without books ... Books ought to be scattered all over the house, even in the passages, in the bedroom, les livres du chevet, everywhere.

Friendship based solely upon gratitude is like a photograph; with time it fades.

I am quite above physical death and believe it to be only the birth throes for a much purer life in a much purer draping.

[Written in 1901:] Nothing has been so deplorable for countries as centralization. I am afraid when I see Germany grow so powerful, and centralizing in Berlin; it is the beginning of the end!

My greatest wish is to write in such a manner that all may think they have written it themselves.

It seems enormous to me that we have the idea of eternity, of justice, of purity, of beauty, when everything that we see is so far from all that! Who has put those visions into our heads? The soul that knows so much more than what it sees; the soul that comes from far and goes far, and to whom limits make no difference!