Men of genius supply the substance of history, while the mass of men are but the critical filter, the limiting, slackening, passive force needed for the modification of ideas supplied by genius.

Every man is a priest, even involuntarily; his conduct is an unspoken sermon, which is forever preaching to others.

The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret.

At the bottom of the modern man there is always a great thirst for self-forgetfulness, self-distraction . . . and therefore he turns away from all those problems and abysses which might recall to him his own nothingness.

Man is a passion which brings a will into play, which works an intelligence.

If man was what he ought to be, he would be adored by the animals...

Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.

Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, wants to re-establish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys.

Without passion man is a mere latent force and possibility, like the flint which awaits the shock of the iron before it can give forth its spark.