The world is the closed door. It is a barrier. And at the same time it is the way through.

We are like horses who hurt themselves as soon as they pull on their bits - and we bow our heads. We even lose consciousness of the situation, we just submit. Any re-awakening of thought is then painful.

To set up as a standard of public morality a notion which can neither be defined nor conceived is to open the door to every kind of tyranny.

Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.

To wish to escape from solitude is cowardice. Friendship is not to be sought, not to be dreamed, not to be desired; it is to be exercised (it is a virtue).

There is only one fault, only one: our inability to feed upon light.

We have to try to cure our faults by attention and not by will.