Every reform by violence is to be deprecated, because it does little to correct the evil while men remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need of violence.
Even if the absence of government really did mean anarchy in a negative, disorderly sense – which is from from being the case – even then, no anarchical disorder could be worse than the position to which government has led humanity.
Under the influence of music, it seems that I feel what I do not really feel, that I understand what I do not understand, that I do what I cannot do.
And the cause of everything is that which we call God.
Why should I live? Why should I do anything? Is there in life any purpose which the inevitable death that awaits me does not undo and destroy?
The kinder and more thoughtful a person is, the more kindness they can find in other people.
The happiness of men consists in life. And life is in labor.
In education, once more, the chief things are equality and freedom.
Better to know a few things which are good and necessary than many things which are useless and mediocre.
People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing-refusing to participate in activities that make life bad.
A leader is the wave pushed ahead by the ship.
I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine.
What is important is not the quantity of your knowledge but its quality. You can know many things without knowing the most important.
Prayer is an invisible tool which is wielded in a visible world.
In order to obtain and hold power a man must love it. Thus the effort to get it is not likely to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities of pride, craft and cruelty.
When I have one foot in the grave, I will tell the whole truth about women. I shall tell it, jump into my coffin, pull the lid over me and say, “Do what you like now.”
This history of culture will explain to us the motives, the conditions of life, and the thought of the writer or reformer.
Pierre was one of those people who are strong only when they feel themselves perfectly pure.
But that’s just the aim of civilization – to make everything a source of enjoyment.
In all human sorrow nothing gives comfort but love and faith, and that in the sight of Christ’s compassion for us no sorrow is trifiling.