Growing nations should remember that, in nature, no tree, though placed in the best conditions of light, soil, and plot, can continue to grow and spread indefinitely.

His heart is a desert island.... The whole scope, the whole energy of his mind surround and protect him; his depths isolate him and guard him against the truth. He flatters himself that he is entirely alone there.... Patience, dear lady. Perhaps, one day, he will discover some footprint on the sand.... What holy and happy terror, what salutary fright, once he recognizes in that pure sign of grace that his island is mysteriously inhabited!

Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.

Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder.

To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant and totally unexpected thoughts.

It would be impossible to "love" anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object.

I thought it necessary to study history, even to study it deeply, in order to obtain a clear meaning of our immediate time.