32 quotes
French poet, essayist, and philosopher (1871–1945)
“The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.”
"What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves."
on Philosophy
"What one wrote playfully, another reads with tension and passion; what one wrote with tension and passion, another reads playfully."
on Writing
"Our judgments judge us, and nothing reveals us, exposes our weaknesses, more ingeniously than the attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows."
"Liberty is the hardest test that one can inflict on a people."
on Freedom
"God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through."
on Faith
"God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly"
"The future, like everything else, is not what it used to be."
on Time
"God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly."
"A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone."
"The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds."
"The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be."
"War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other."
on War
"Life blackens at the contact of truth."
on Truth
"Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business."
on Politics
"If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning we feel a certain void. 'Nothing in the paper today ' we sigh."
on Humor
"Great things are accomplished by those who do not feel the impotence of man. This ... is a precious gift."
on Inspirational
"Those who cannot attack the thought, instead attack the thinker."
"Poems are never finished - just abandoned"
"An artist never really finishes his work he merely abandons it."
on Art
"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up."
on Dreams
