Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned.

There is no sociology worthy of the name which does not possess a historical character.

Faith is not uprooted by dialectic proof; it must already be deeply shaken by other causes to be unable to withstand the shock of argument.

The man whose whole activity is diverted to inner meditation becomes insensible to all his surroundings.

One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature. When one feels such pleasure in non-existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.

Man's characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts is not physical but moral; that is, social. He is governed not by a material environment brutally imposed on him, but by a conscience superior to his own, the superiority of which he feels. Because the greater, better part of his existence transcends the body, he escapes the body's yoke, but is subject to that of society.

One does not advance when one walks toward no goal, or - which is the same thing - when his goal is infinity.