Life is fired at us point blank.

Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.

The masses think that is is easy to flee from reality, when it is the most difficult thing in the world.

It is not obligatory for a generation to have great men.

History is the science of people.

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.

All we are given is possibilities — to make ourselves one thing or another.