An attitude of permanent indignation signifies great mental poverty. Politics compels it votaries to take that line and you can see their minds growing more impoverished every day, from one burst of righteous indignation to the next.

Nothing is more natural than mutual misunderstanding; the contrary is always surprising. I believe that one never agrees on anything except by mistake, and that all harmony among human beings is the happy fruit of an error.

Conscience reigns but it does not govern.

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

A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.

Order always weighs on the individual. Disorder makes him wish for the police or for death. These are two extreme circumstances in which human nature is not at ease.

That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false.