Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.
Most quarrels amplify a misunderstanding.
The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.
Nothing is so silly as the expression of a man who is being complimented.
Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.
Are you then unable to recognize unless it has the same sound as yours?
Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.
It is not always by plugging away at a difficulty and sticking to it that one overcomes it; often it is by working on the one next to it. Some things and some people have to be approached obliquely, at an angle.
The most decisive actions of our life -- I mean those that are most likely to decide the whole course of our future -- are, more often than not, unconsidered.
Know thyself. A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever studies himself arrest his own development. A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly.
Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.
Not everyone can be an orphan.
The abominable effort to take one's sins with one to paradise.
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.
Old hands soil, it seems, whatever they caress, but they too have their beauty when they are joined in prayer. Young hands were made for caresses and the sheathing of love. It is a pity to make them join too soon.
There is no prejudice that the work of art does not finally overcome.
It is good to follow one's own bent, so long as it leads upward.
Sin is whatever obscures the soul.
The most gifted natures are perhaps also the most trembling.
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.
Believe those who are seeking truth, doubt those who find it.