Quotes

"When a subject comes up that makes us uneasy, let us remember that the unspoken word is ours, the spoken word never belongs to us again."

"But what beauty is there in doing good to someone who is out to harm us? The sense of difference, that is the beauty."

"Cigars contain so much nicotine that people who smoke cigars all day are ruining their stomachs and nerves. A good pipe, a good tobacco, never upsets the stomach. Tobacco from Verpelét is a good way to soften tobacco. The tobacco sold in tobacconists' shops is not tobacco of the Verpelét variety, but only of the yellow leaf variety."

"In the question of the holy wafer, the main point is not whether we agree with St. Augustine or with the Fourth Council of the Lateran, but whether or not this way of union with Christ makes us happy. If so, it's not right to deprive those it does."

"Anyone who expresses views that are contrary to those of the rest of the company can be an interesting conversationalist. If he can prove and defend those views well, he gets the attention. It makes no difference whether he is right or wrong: it is either amusing or instructive."

"If you see a small child selling goods or newspapers or matches or whatever at night, give them food - never money. And send him home with the policeman on the plea of human kindness."

"I read the poster of a theatre in a rural town: Billeting Order (Antony Mars - Henri Kéroul), Ferdinand the Roisterer (Georges Berr), Inspector of the Red Cars (Alexandre Bisson), Moving Photographs, etc. At the end of the poster, the director asks the audience for patronage. Why? This is not even a domestic industry!"

"If we paint on paper the rivers of the terrestrial globe, and in the representation of the human body the veins: how very similar!"

"Painters and musicians are mostly nice people and superficial thinkers. They move around a lot in the world and so have a lot of life experience, but they are not good at talking about deep subjects because they read very little and so their knowledge is more an accumulation of individual experience than the intellectual store of humanity. If you come into contact with a painter or musician whose company is not pleasant, they are the easiest to get rid of. One has only to praise the work of a competitor before them."

"We drink many glasses of water and many glasses of wine on this earth, and everyone must drink some very bitter ones. But after every bitter drink, it is as if the hand of an angel offers you a cup of refreshing sweet."

"Music on Earth has a total of 7 octaves. There must be music in the other world. - How many octaves there? What is the infinity of sounds? What is only ten times seven octaves? Perhaps we can get an idea from the bass in the sky when we hear the thunder."

"The astronomical observatory says it can only see the eight planets magnified. The other thousands of thousands of stars are only as big as they look to the naked eye when viewed through any telescope. It follows that they are all suns. What force holds them there in the desolate heights? And we still doubt that our life is not held by that HAND!"

"With what a triumphant eye the philosopher of history describes how once all that we now call sin was morality! That is to say, murder, fornication; drunkenness, robbery, theft, and so on. Well, there is nothing to wonder at. Mankind has evolved from animalism, and is still evolving today. But let it be shown that what was once felt to be morality, and became known as sin, becomes morality again. Is it conceivable that mercy will one day be called sin? Is it conceivable that cruelty, robbery, fornication, slavery, idleness, will be called morality?"

"The dead writers have left us like the fairy maiden in the fairy tale, fleeing from the shepherd who finds her: On the meadow the diamond-encrusted silk veil remains..."

"The language has added the word royal to the decorative adjectives. Often we hear or read royal stature, royal dignity, royal collar, and the like. But it has never been said: - Royal mind."

"How bad we are! - is best seen by the fact that we try to do a lot of things, but not so much to be good."

"Don't bow to anyone just because he is richer or wealthier, - leave the bowing to the servants and those who have servant souls. But bow to the man, however poor, however ragged, whose deeds you may bow to."

"The best occupation is one that connects you to nature. So: farming, forestry, cartography, navigation, fishing, etc. In urban and indoor occupations, the best person is a specialist. Those who can do what no one else can do are out of the competition and get rich quick. In objects, too, what is of greatest value is that which is one, of which there is no more. Cheap objects and cheap people are of no value to society."

"Never ask for a loan. Debt turns a man into dog. But if someone asks you, always give gladly, - if you can. Give especially to him whose eyes speak the plea of affliction, and who asks in shame. And do not regard such a man as a dog, but as a brother. On the contrary, never give to a gambler, to a show-off, to a drunkard, or to a flatterer. They are better turned away from you."

"A man's work is only wonderful as long as it is new, and as long as someone does something different. The work of God, though it be a seed of acacia, a grain of sand, a hair of the head, is always wonderful, and who can make a more special work after him?"