To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song.
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.
Order is power.
Self-interest is but the survival of the animal in us. Humanity only begins for man with self-surrender.
Music is harmony, harmony is perfection, perfection is our dream, and our dream is heaven.
The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes.
I'm not interested in age. People who tell me their age are silly. You're as old as you feel.
Our duty is to be useful, not according to our desires but according to our powers.
Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.
If nationality is consent, the state is compulsion.
Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd; it must be communicated by contagion.
Common sense is calculation applied to life.
He who asks of life nothing but the improvement of his own nature... is less liable than anyone else to miss and waste life.
Materialism coarsens and petrifies everything, making everything vulgar, and every truth false.
Woman is the salvation or the destruction of the family. She carries its destiny in the folds of her mantle.
Sacrifice still exists everywhere, and everywhere the elect of each generation suffers for the salvation of the rest.
Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.
Sacrifice, which is the passion of great souls, has never been the law of societies.
Clever people will recognize and tolerate nothing but cleverness.
