“Religion as a source of consolation is an obstacle to true faith.”

Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.

Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.

Patriotism is idolatry of the self.

Every being cries out in silence to be read differently. Do not be indifferent to these cries.

Modern life is given over to immoderation. Immoderation invades everything: actions and thought, public and private life.

To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal.

It is much easier to imagine ourselves in the place of God the Creator than in the place of Christ crucified.

Contradiction is the lever of transcendence.

Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.

There is only one fault, only one: our inability to feed upon light.

To die for God is not a proof of faith in God. To die for an unknown and repulsive convict who is a victim of injustice, that is a proof of faith in God.

Never react to an evil in such a way as to augment it.

The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it.

Love: To feel with one’s whole self the existence of another being.

One has only the choice between God and idolatry. There is no other possibility. For the faculty of worship is in us, and it is either directed somewhere into this world, or into another.

There are only two things that pierce the human heart. One is beauty. The other is affliction.

Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.

Maybe it’s your time to lift off and fly You won’t know if you never try.

To know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance.

Now everyone dreams of a love faithful and true, But you and I know what this world can do. So let’s make our steps clear so the other may see. And I’ll wait for you…should I fall behind wait for me.

I was a wife and mother, blameless in moral life, with a deep sense of duty and a proud self-respect; it was while I was this that doubt struck me, and while I was in the guarded circle of the home, with no dream of outside work or outside liberty, that I lost all faith in Christianity.

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Show a little faith there is magic in the night. You ain’t a beauty, but hey you’re alright, and that’s alright with me.

The fire of affliction reveals the quality of our faith.