The right to kill: supposing the life of X ... were linked with our own so that the two deaths had to be simultaneous, should we still wish him to die? If with our whole body and soul we desire life and if nevertheless without lying, we can reply 'yes'> then we have the right to kill.

Nothing can have as its destination anything other than its origin. The contrary idea, the idea of progress, is poison.

It is impossible that the whole of truth should not be present at every time and every place, available for anyone who desires it.

I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.

As for the spirit of poverty, I do not remember any moment when it was not in me, although only to that unhappily small extent compatible with my imperfection. I fell in love with Saint Francis of Assisi as soon as I came to know about him. I always believed and hoped that one day Fate would force upon me the condition of a vagabond and a beggar which he embraced freely. Actually I felt the same way about prison.

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

Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.