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

Life is fired at us point blank.

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

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 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.

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

The essence of man is, discontent, divine discontent; a sort of love without a beloved, the ache we feel in a member we no longer have.