It is only necessary to know that love is a direction and not a state of the soul. If one is unaware of this, one falls to despair at the first onslaught of affliction.

The speed with which bureaucracy has invaded almost every branch of human activity is something astounding once one thinks about it.

Expectant waiting is the foundation of the spiritual life.

For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation.

Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.

Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.

The great error of nearly all studies of war... has been to consider war as an episode in foreign policies, when it is an act of interior politics.