Beauty is a fruit which we look at without trying to seize it.

To be innocent is to bear the weight of the entire universe. It is to throw away the counterweight.

The poet produces the beautiful by fixing his attention on something real.

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

Evil is license, and that is why it is monotonous: everything has to be drawn from ourselves. One is condemned to false infinity. That is hell itself.

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.

Compassion directed to oneself is humility.