Beauty captivates the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass right through to the soul. . . . When the feeling for beauty happens to be associated with the sight of some human being, the transference of love is made possible, at any rate in an illusory manner. But it is all the beauty of the world, it is universal beauty, for which we yearn.

One cannot imagine St. Francis of Assisi talking about rights.

Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.

We must love all facts, not for their consequences, but because in each fact God is there present.

War, which perpetuates itself under the form of preparation for war, has once and for all given the State an important role in production.

A man whose mind feels that it is captive would prefer to blind himself to the fact. But if he hates falsehood, he will not do so; and in that case he will have to suffer a lot. He will beat his head against the wall until he faints. He will come to again

In the Church, considered as a social organism, the mysteries inevitably degenerate into beliefs.