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.

Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.

There is an illusion of central position, justifying one's own purposes as right and everybody else¹s as wrong, and providing a proper degree of paranoia. Righteous ends, thus approved, absolve of guilt the most violent means.

The ideal, after all, is true than the real: for the ideal is the eternal element in perishable things.

To be always ready a man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied.

From every spot on earth we are equally near heaven and the infinite.

Criticism is above all a gift, an intuition, a matter of tact and flair; it cannot be taught or demonstrated--it is an art.