“God knows better than we do what we need.”

“The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live.”

“There are, as we know, powerful and illustrious atheists. At bottom, led back to the truth by their very force, they are not absolutely sure that they are atheists; it is with them only a question of definition, and in any case, if they do not believe in God, being great minds, they prove God.”

“We need those who pray constantly to compensate for those who do not pray at all.”

“We may be indifferent to the death penalty and not declare ourselves either way so long as we have not seen a guillotine with our own eyes. But when we do, the shock is violent, and we are compelled to choose sides, for or against... Death belongs to God alone.”

“Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.”

“Particularly at those moments when we have the sorest need of grasping the sharp realities of life do the threads of thought snap off in the brain. ”