Cleverness is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.

Religion is not a method, it is a life, a higher and supernatural life, mystical in its root and practical in its fruits; a communion with God, a calm and deep enthusiasm, a love which radiates, a force which acts, a happiness which overflows.

The stationary condition is the beginning of the end

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

The germs of all things are in every heart, and the greatest criminals as well as the greatest heroes are but different modes of ourselves.

The history of man is essentially zoological; it becomes human late in the day, and then only in the beautiful souls, the souls alive to justice, goodness, enthusiasm, and devotion. The angel shows itself rarely and with difficulty through the highly-organized brute.

The musician of the present day, not being able to give us what is beautiful, torments himself to give us what is new.