Among austere men intimacy involves shame--and is something precious.

In order for once to get a glimpse of our European morality from a distance, in order to compare it with other earlier or future moralities, one must do as the traveller who wants to know the height of the towers of a city: he leaves the city.

In compassionate men, severity is a virtue.

The priest knows, as every one knows, that there is no longer any "God," or any "sinner," or any "Saviour" that "free will" and the "moral order of the world" are lies : serious reflection, the profound self conquest of the spirit, allow no man to pretend that he does not know it.

I love him who wants to create over and beyond himself and thus perishes.

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

To the mediocre, mediocrity is a form of happiness.