There is no repose for the mind except in the absolute; for feeling, except in the infinite; for the soul, except in the divine.

We become actors without realizing it, and actors without wanting to.

For purposes of action nothing is more useful than narrowness of thought combined with energy of will.

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.

Are we not all shipwrecked,...condemned to death?... However impatient our neighbours make us, however much indignation our race arouses, we are all bound together, and the companions of a chain-gang have everything to lose by mutual insults.

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.

About Jesus we must believe no one but himself.