Rancor is an outpouring of a feeling of inferiority.

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

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.

Civilization is nothing else but the attempt to reduce force to being the last resort.

Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.

We need to study the whole of history, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.

Beliefs constitute the basic stratum, that which lies deepest, in the architecture of our life. By them we live, and by the same token we rarely think of them.... One may symbolize the individual life as a bank of issue. The bank lives on the credit of a gold reserve which is rarely seen, which lies at the bottom of metal coffers hidden in the vaults of the building. The most elementary caution will suggest that from time to time the effective condition of these guaranties--of these credences, one might say, that are the basis of credit--be passed in review.