The supernatural virtue of justice consists of behaving exactly as though there were equality when one is the stronger in an unequal relationship.

If there were no affliction in this world we might think we were in paradise.

Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them but is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link.

Compassion directed to oneself is humility.

Oppression that is clearly inexorable and invincible does not give rise to revolt but to submission.

It is not enough that France should be regarded as a country which enjoys the remains of a freedom acquired long ago. If she is still to count in the world--and if she does not intend to, she may as well perish--she must be seen by her own citizens and by all men as an ever-flowing source of liberty. There must not be a single genuine lover of freedom in the whole world who can have a valid reason for hating France.

The feeding of those that are hungry is a form of contemplation.