I am a spectator, so to speak, of the molecular whirlwind which men call individual life; I am conscious of an incessant metamorphosis, an irresistible movement of existence, which is going on within me - and this phenomenology of myself serves as a window opened upon the mystery of the world.

Knowledge, love, power-there is the complete life.

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves. The consciousness of wrong-doing makes us irritable, and our heart, in its cunning, quarrels with what is outside it, in order that it may deafen the clamor within.

A man without passion is only a latent force, only a possibility, like a stone waiting for the blow from the iron to give forth sparks.

The philosopher aspires to explain away all mysteries, to dissolve them into light. Mystery on the other hand is demanded and pursued by the religious instinct; mystery constitutes the essence of worship, the power of proselytism.

In every loving woman there is a priestess of the past - a pious guardian of some affection, of which the object has disappeared.

Life is but a daily oscillation between revolt and submission.