“Those who are unhappy have no need for anything in this world but people capable of giving them their attention.”

It is not religion but revolution which is the opium of the people.

A man thinks he is dying for his country,” said Anatole France, “but he is dying for a few industrialists.” But even that is saying too much. What one dies for is not even so substantial and tangible as an industrialist.

I also am other than what I imagine myself to be. To know this is forgiveness.

Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.

For when two beings who are not friends are near each other there is no meeting, and when friends are far apart there is no separation.

Love is not consolation, it is light.

God is rich in mercy. I know this wealth of his with the certainty of experience, I have touched it.

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.

The beauty of the world is Christ’s tender smile for us coming through matter.

The sea is not less beautiful in our eyes because we know that sometimes ships are wrecked by it.

We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.

Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good.

Love of God is pure when joy and suffering inspire an equal degree of gratitude.

A mind enclosed in language is in prison.

It is a fault to wish to be understood before we have made ourselves clear to ourselves.

It is only from the light which streams constantly from heaven that a tree can derive the energy to strike its roots deep into the soil. The tree is in fact rooted in the sky.

You become what you give your attention to. If you yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.

The stuff we choose to surround ourselves has a claim on our time, energy, and attention and finally on our life. 

It wasn’t you but your soul that caught my attention.

We all need love and a lot of attention.

A strong friendship doesn’t need your daily attention.

I am much pleased to find how very well I stand work & how my powers of attention & continued effort increase.

It is not attention that the child is seeking, but love.

Attention, if sudden and close, graduates into surprise; and this into astonishment; and this into stupefied amazement.