Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

Evil is neither suffering nor sin; it is both at the same time, it is something common to them both. For they are linked together; sin makes us suffer and suffering makes us evil, and this indissoluble complex of suffering and sin is the evil in which we are submerged against our will, and to our horror.

Evil being the root of mystery, pain is the root of knowledge.

The payment of debts is necessary for social order. The non-payment is quite equally necessary for social order. For centuries humanity has oscillated, serenely unaware, between these two contradictory necessities.

Contradiction is the lever of transcendence.

Of two men who have no experience of God, he who denies him is perhaps nearer to him than the other.

The highest ecstasy is the attention at its fullest.