Vertu des humbles - acceptation; et cela leur va si bien, à certains, qu'on croit comprendre que leur vie est faite à la mesure de leur âme. Surtout ne pas les plaindre : leur état leur convient ; déplorable ! Ils ne s'aperçoivent plus de la médiocrité, sitôt que ce n'est plus une médiocrité de fortune.

Si le grain de blé qui est tombé en terre ne meurt, il reste seul ; mais, s'il meurt, il porte beaucoup de fruit. Celui qui aime sa vie la perdra, et celui qui hait sa vie dans ce monde la conservera pour la vie éternelle.

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves.

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.

Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.

I owe much to my friends; but, all things considered, it strikes me that I owe even more to my enemies. The real person springs life under a sting even better than under a caress.

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.