As soon as we put something into words, we devalue it in a strange way. We think we have plunged into the depths of the abyss, and when we return to the surface the drop of water on our pale fingertips no longer resembles the sea from which it comes. We delude ourselves that we have discovered a wonderful treasure trove, and when we return to the light of day we find that we have brought back only false stones and shards of glass; and yet the treasure goes on glimmering in the dark, unaltered.
The true sage is not he who sees, but he who, seeing the furthest, has the deepest love for mankind.
It is death that is the guide of our life, and our life has no goal but death.
Brave old-flowers! Wall-flowers, Gilly flowers, Stocks! For even as the field-flowers, from which a trifle, a ray of beauty, a drop of perfume, divides them, they have charming names, the softest in the language; and each of them, like tiny, art-less ex-votos, or like medals bestowed by the gratitude of men, proudly bears three or four.
Wisdom requires no form; her beauty must vary, as varies the beauty of flame. She is no motionless goddess, for ever couched on her throne.
The truth that seems discouraging does in reality only transform the courage of those strong enough to accept it; and, in any event, a truth that disheartens, because it is true, is still of far more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods.
The decent moderation of today will be the least of human things tomorrow. At the time of the Spanish Inquisition, the opinion of good sense and of the good medium was certainly that people ought not to burn too large a number of heretics; extreme and unreasonable opinion obviously demanded that they should burn none at all.
I am moved by the light.
Above all, let us never forget that an act of goodness is in itself an act of happiness. It is the flower of a long inner life of joy and contentment; it tells of peaceful hours and days on the sunniest heights of our soul.
The hour of justice does not strike On the dials of this world.
The souls of all our brethren are ever hovering about us, craving for a caress, and only waiting for the signal.
At every crossroads on the path that leads to the future, tradition has placed 10,000 men to guard the past.
We can never judge a soul above the high water mark of our own.
All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing.
I count only the hours that are serene.
The value of ourselves is but the value of our melancholy and our disquiet.
To have known how to change the past into a few saddened smiles-is this not to master the future?
I have never for one instant seen clearly within myself. How then would you have me judge the deeds of others?
To disdain today is to prove that yesterday has been misunderstood.
He who sees without loving is only straining his eyes in the darkness.
The thoughts you think will irradiate you as though you are a transparent vase.
To be good we must needs have suffered; but perhaps it is necessary to have caused suffering before we can become better.
The dog who meets with a good master is the happier of the two.
The dog is the only living being that has found and recognizes an indubitable, tangible and definite god. He knows to whom above him to give himself. He has not to seek for a superior and infinite power.
Our reason may prove what it will: our reason is only a feeble ray that has issued from Nature.
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