Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love andjustice.

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

In order to obey God, one must receive his commands. How did it happen that I received them in adolescence, while I was professing atheism? To believe that the desire for good is always fulfilled - that is faith, and whoever has it is not an atheist.

I would suggest that barbarism be considered as a permanent and universal human characteristic which becomes more or less pronounced according to the play of circumstances.

It seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.

Sin is not a distance, it is a turning of our gaze in the wrong direction.