At the centre of the human heart is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.

The most important part of teaching is to teach what it is to know.

The role of the intelligence - that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions is merely to submit.

[We are not] to take one step, even in the direction of what is good, beyond that to which we are irresistibly impelled by God, and this applies to action, word, and thought.

The beauty of the world is Christ's tender smile for us coming through matter.

The authentic and pure values, truth, beauty, and goodness, in the activity of a human being are the result of one and the same act, a certain application of the full attention to the object. Teaching should have no aim but to prepare, by training the attention, for the possibility of such an act. All the other advantages of instruction are without interest.

To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.