Religion is to mysticism what popularization is to science

I believe that the time given to refutation in philosophy is usually time lost. Of the many attacks directed by many thinkers against each other, what now remains? Nothing, or assuredly very little. That which counts and endures is the modicum of positive truth which each contributes. The true statement is, of itself, able to displace the erroneous idea, and becomes, without our having taken the trouble of refuting anyone, the best of refutations.

If reality impacted directly on our senses and our consciousness, if we could have direct communication between the material world and ourselves, art would be unnecessary.

The emotion felt by a man in the presence of nature certainly counts for something in the origin of religions.

The vital spirit. L'élan vital

To perceive means to immobilize. To say this is to say that we seize, in the act of perception, something which outruns perception itself.

I see plainly how external images influence the image that I call my body : they transmit movement to it.