Armies under the control of ... a sovereign State cannot bring freedom to anyone.

There are two atheisms of which one is a purification of the notion of God.

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.

At the centre of the human heart is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.

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.

The contemporary form of true greatness lies in a civilization founded upon the spirituality of work.

[We are not] to take one step, even in the direction of what is good, beyond that to which we are irresistibly impelled by God, and this applies to action, word, and thought.