Barbarism is the absence of standards to which appeal can be made.

There may be as much nobility in being last as in being first, because the two positions are equally necessary in the world, the one to complement the other.

The librarian's mission should be, not like up to now, a mere handling of the book as an object, but rather a know how (mise au point) of the book as a vital function.

A revolution only lasts fifteen years, a period which coincides with the effectiveness of a generation.

Life is a series of collisions with the future.

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand. This is the sport, the luxury, special to the intellectual man.

There is but one way left to save a classic; to give up revering him and use him for our own salvation.