One can never really give a proof of the reality of anything; reality is not something open to proof, it is something established. It is established just because proof is not enough. It is this characteristic of language, at once indispensable and inadequate, which shows the reality of the external world. Most people hardly ever realize this, because it is rare that the very same man thinks and puts his thought into action.

One does not play Bach without having done scales. But neither does one play a scale merely for the sake of the scale.

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

Every sin is an attempt to fly from emptiness.

The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it.

We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him.

There is no greater joy for me than looking at the sky on a clear night with an attention so concentrated that all my other thoughts disappear; then one can think that the stars enter into one's soul.