Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Every instant of our lives is essentially irreplaceable: you must know this in order to concentrate on life.
A desire for truth is by no means a need for certitude and it would be unwise to confuse one with the other.
Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.
The miser puts his gold pieces into a coffer; but as soon as the coffer is closed, it is as if it were empty.
To what a degree the same past can leave different marks - and especially admit of different interpretations.
Generally among intelligent people are found nothing but paralytics and among men of action nothing but fools.
The important thing is being capable of emotions, but to experience only one's own would be a sorry limitation.
The individual man tries to escape the race. And as soon as he ceases to represent the race, he represents man.
Most often people seek in life occasions for persisting in their opinions rather than for educating themselves.
Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.
In hell there is no other punishment than to begin over and over again the tasks left unfinished in your lifetime.
Obtain from yourself all that makes complaining useless. No longer implore from others what you yourself can obtain.
You have to let other people be right' was his answer to their insults. 'It consoles them for not being anything else.
Never have I been able to settle in life. Always seated askew, as if on the arm of a chair; ready to get up, to leave.
To be sure, theory is useful. But without warmth of heart and without love it bruises the very ones it claims to save.
To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.
It is with fine sentiments that bad literature is made. Descend to the bottom of the well if you wish to see the stars.
It is unthinkable for a Frenchman to arrive at middle age without having syphilis and the Cross of the Legion of Honor.
When intelligent people pride themselves on not understanding, it is quite natural they should succeed better than fools.
I wished for nothing beyond her smile, and to walk with her thus, hand in hand, along a sun warmed, flower bordered path.
"Let the dead bury the dead." There is not a single word of Christ to which the Christian religion has paid less attention.
It is the special quality of love not to be able to remain stationary, to be obliged to increase under pain of diminishing.
Life never presents us with anything which may not be looked upon as a fresh starting point, no less than as a termination.
The individual person is more interesting than people in general; he and not they is the one whom God created in His image.
If one could recover the uncompromising spirit of one's youth, one's greatest indignation would be for what one has become.
The most important things to say are those which often I did not think necessary for me to say - because they were too obvious.
God lies ahead. I convince myself and constantly repeat to myself that: He depends on us. It is through us that God is achieved.
True intelligence very readily conceives of an intelligence superior to its own; and this is why truly intelligent men are modest.
The most subtle art, the strongest and deepest art - supreme art - is the one that does not at first allow itself to be recognized.
From the satisfaction of desire there may arise, accompanying joy and as it were sheltering behind it, something not unlike despair.
One is always wrong to open a conversation with the devil, for, however he goes about it, he always insists upon having the last word.
Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.
It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.
What eludes logic is the most precious element in us, and one can draw nothing from a syllogism that the mind has not put there in advance.
The only really Christian art is that which, like St. Francis, does not fear being wedded to poverty. This rises far above art-as-ornament.
The want of logic annoys. Too much logic bores. Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced.
No theory is good unless it permits, not rest, but the greatest work. No theory is good except on condition that one use it to go on beyond.
One should want only one thing and want it constantly. Then one is sure of getting it. But I desire everything, and consequently get nothing.
It would be wisest not to worry too much about the sterile periods. They ventilate the subject and instill into it the reality of daily life.
Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.
The belief that becomes truth for me... is that which allows me the best use of my strength, the best means of putting my virtues into action.
Chastity more rarely follows fear, or a resolution, or a vow, than it is the mere effect of lack of appetite and, sometimes even, of distaste.
Too chaste an adolescence makes for a dissolute old age. It is doubtless easier to give up something one has known than something one imagines.
Let every emotion be capable becoming an intoxication to you. If what you eat fails to make you drunk, it is because you are not hungry enough.
The truth is that as soon as we are no longer obliged to earn our living, we no longer know what to do with our life and recklessly squander it.
It is one of life's laws that as soon as one door closes another opens. But the tragedy is we look at the closed door and disregard the open one.
Our deeds attach themselves to us like the flame to phosphorus. They constitute our brilliance, to be sure, but only in so far as they consume us.
The itch is a mean, unconfessable, ridiculous malady; one can pity someone who is suffering ; someone who wants to scratch himself makes one laugh.
Art that submits to orthodoxy, to even the soundest doctrines, but lacks imagination and deep self-expression is lost leaving only the craftsmanship.
We no longer admit any other truth than that which is expedient; for there is no worse error than the truth that may weaken the arm that is fighting.