Every life is a profession of faith.

We only understand that which already is within us.

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.

Obstinacy is will asserting itself without being able to justify itself. It is persistence without a reasonable motive. It is the tenacity of self-love substituted for that of reason and conscience.

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

Nothing finite is true, is interesting, is worthy to fix my attention. All that is particular is exclusive, and all that is exclusive repels me.

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.