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.

To rule is not so much a question of the heavy hand as the firm seat.

I am I plus my surroundings; and if I do not preserve the latter, I do not preserve myself.

Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.

The world is the sum-total of our vital possibilities.

The cynic, a parasite of civilization, lives by denying it, for the very reason that he is convinced that it will not fail.

Love is that splendid triggering of human vitality the supreme activity which nature affords anyone for going out of himself toward someone else.