Do not despise your situation; in it you must act, suffer, and conquer. From every point on earth we are equally near to heaven and to the infinite.

Wisdom consists in rising superior both to madness and to common sense, and is lending oneself to the universal illusion without becoming its dupe.

A modest garden contains, for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library.

Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.

Latent genius is but a presumption. Everything that can be, is bound to come into being, and what never comes into being is nothing.

Righteous ends, thus approved, absolve of guilt the most violent means.

Life is an apprenticeship to the constant renunciations, to the steady failure of our claims, our hopes, our powers, our liberty.