The heart of man does not tolerate an absence of the excellent and supreme.

Law is born from despair of human nature.

What makes a nation great is not primarily its great men, but the stature of its innumerable mediocre ones.

The people with the clear heads are the ones who look life in the face, realize that everything in it is problematic, and feel themselves lost. And this is the simple truth: that to live is to feel oneself lost. Those who accept it have already begun to find themselves, to be on firm ground.

The hero's will is not that of his ancestors nor of his society, but his own. This will to be oneself is heroism.

Effort is only effort when it begins to hurt.

To live is to feel oneself lost.