Nothing is worse than extreme affliction which destroys the "I" from the outside, because after that we can no longer destroy it ourselves.

Attentiveness is the heart of prayer.

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

Necessity is God's veil.

Humility is attentive patience.

Education-whether its object be children or adults, individuals or an entire people-consists in creating motives.

Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.