We need to be reminded more than we need to be instructed

History is not a toboggan slide, but a road to be reconsidered and even retraced

Humility is the mother of giants.

A mystic is a man who separates heaven and earth even if he enjoys them both.

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.

No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.

A naked moon stood in a naked sky.