Commonplaces are the tramways of intellectual transportation.

When you are fed up with the troublesome present, you take your gun, whistle for your dog, go out to the mountain, and, without further ado, give yourself the pleasure during a few hours or a few days of being "Paleolithic."

The most radical division that it is possible to make of humanity is that which splits it into two classes of creatures: Those who make great demands on themselves, piling up difficulties and duties; and those who demand nothing special of themselves, but for whom to live is to be every moment what they already are, without imposing on themselves any effort towards perfection, mere buoys that float on the waves.

In order to master the unruly torrent of life the learned man meditates, the poet quivers, and the political hero erects the fortress of his will.

Men play at tragedy because they do not believe in the reality of the tragedy which is actually being staged in the civilised world

Life is the external text, the burning bush by the edge of the path from which God speaks.

Living is nothing more or less than doing one thing instead of another.