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.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

Love is faith and one faith leads to another.

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.

The spirit of sarcasm lives and thrives in the midst of universal wreck; its balls are enchanted and itself invulnerable, and it braves retaliations and reprisals because itself is a mere flash, a bodiless and magical nothing.

Sympathy is the first condition of criticism.

It is dangerous to abandon one's self to the luxury of grief; it deprives one of courage, and even of the wish for recovery.