“The soul is healed by being with children.”

Man is sometimes extraordinarily, passionately, in love with suffering.

What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.

Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.

Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.

I say let the world go to hell, but I should always have my tea.

When reason fails, the devil helps!

People speak sometimes about the “bestial” cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.

I think the devil doesn’t exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness.

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

You can be sincere and still be stupid.

Besides, nowadays, almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it.

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

A beast can never be as cruel as a human being, so artistically, so picturesquely cruel.

I love mankind, he said, “but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.

Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared with love in dreams.

You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.

There must be a law against forcing children to perform at an early age. Children should have a wonderful childhood. They should not be given too much responsibility.

A mother has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.

The worst thing you can do to a child, and I’ve seen it happen so many times, is the silver spoon.

If any child of mine becomes an actor I will turn in my grave.

Pessimism is playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed. Having reckoned what to do in the worst possible circumstances, when better arise, as they may, life becomes child’s play.

The global environment crisis is, as we say in Tennessee, real as rain, and I cannot stand the thought of leaving my children with a degraded earth and a diminished future.

The moral imperative to make big changes is inescapable…that what we take for granted may not be here for our children

Go practice if you please with men and women: leave a child alone for Christ’s particular love’s sake!