The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal.

Great griefs exhaust. They discourage us with life. The man into whom they enter feels something taken from him. In youth, their visit is sad; later on, it is ominous.

I believe, sir, in all the progress. Air navigation is the result of the oceanic navigation: from water the human has to pass in the air. Everywhere where creation will be breathable to him, the human will penetrate into the creation. Our only limit is life.

Intelligence is the wife, imagination is the mistress, memory is the servant.

I believe in religion against the religious; in the pitifulness of orisons, and in the sublimity of prayer.

Blessed be Providence which has given to each his toy: the doll to the child, the child to the woman, the woman to the man, the man to the devil!

There are no trifles in the human story, no trifling leaves on the tree.