Sin is nothing else but the failure to recognize human wretchedness.

What is surprising is not that oppression should make its appearance only after higher forms of economy have been reached, but that it should always accompany them.

The virtue of hope is an orientation of the soul towards a transformation after which it will be wholly and exclusively love.

Do not allow yourself to be imprisoned by any affection. Keep your solitude. The day, if it ever comes, when you are given true affection, there will be no opposition between interior solitude and friendship, quite the reverse. It is even by this infallible sigh that you will recognize it.

To claim that theft or adultery or lying are "evil" simply reflects our degraded idea of good-—that it has something to do with respect for property, respectability, and sincerity.

The need of truth is more sacred than any other need.

We possess nothing in the world - a mere chance can strip us of everything - except the power to say 'I.