“But, reverend master, it is not sufficient to pass one's life, one must earn the means for life.”

“Though one believes in nothing, there are moments in life when one accepts the religion of the temple nearest at hand.”

“The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one's own sake -- let us say rather, loved in spite of one's self.”

“Let us sacrifice one day to gain perhaps a whole life.”

“It is a terrible thing to be happy! How pleased we are with it! How all-sufficient we think it! How, being in possession of the false aim of life, happiness, we forget the true aim, duty!”

“Superstitions, bigotries, hypocrisies, prejudices, these phantoms, phantoms though they be, cling to life; they have teeth and nails in their shadowy substance, and we must grapple with them individually and make war on them without truce; for it is one of humanity's inevitabilities to be condemned to eternal struggle with phantoms.”

“The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal.”