Among twelve apostles there must always be one who is as hard as stone, so that the new church may be built upon him.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

What was silent in the father speaks in the son, and often I found in the son the unveiled secret of the father.

I am a forest, and a night of dark trees: but he who is not afraid of my darkness, will find banks full of roses under my cypresses.

Books for all the world are always foul-smelling books: the smell of small people clings to them.

Some mothers need happy children; others need unhappy ones-otherwise they cannot prove their maternal virtues.

Heroism--that is the disposition of a man who aspires to a goal compared to which he himself is wholly insignificant. Heroism is the good will to self-destruction.