Beauty always promises, but never gives anything.

The glossy surface of our civilization hides a real intellectual decadence.

Only an indirect method is effective. We do nothing if we have not first drawn back.

Those who love a cause are those who love the life which has to be led in order to serve it.

The vulnerability of precious things is beautiful because vulnerability is a mark of existence. The destruction of Troy. The fall of the petals from fruit trees in blossom. To know that what is most precious is not rooted in existence - that is beautiful.

We are like horses who hurt themselves as soon as they pull on their bits - and we bow our heads. We even lose consciousness of the situation, we just submit. Any re-awakening of thought is then painful.

There are only two sorts of greatness: true greatness, which is of a spiritual order, and the old, old lie of world conquest. Conquest is an ersatz greatness.