Punishment is a vital need of the human soul.

The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell.

The villagers seldom leave the village; many scientists have limited and poorly cultivated minds apart from their specialty.

A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.

It is grace that forms the void inside us and it is grace that can fill the void.

When we hit a nail with a hammer, the whole of the shock received by the large head of the nail passes into the point without any of it being lost, although it is only a point. If the hammer and the head of the nail were infinitely big it would be just the same. The point of the nail would transmit this infinite shock at the point to which it was applied. Extreme affliction, which means physical pain, distress of soul and social degradation, all at the same time, constitutes the nail. The point is applied at the very center of the soul, whose head is all necessity, spreading throughout space and time.

The needs of a human being are sacred. Their satisfaction cannot be subordinated either to reasons of state, or to any consideration of money, nationality, race, or color, or to the moral or other value attributed to the human being in question, or to any consideration whatsoever.