Because Christianity is a religion of death, it could be treated with the utmost realism, and it could have its orgies, just likethe old religion of nature and life.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

Versatility of education can be found in our best poetry, but the depth of mankind should be found in the philosopher.

Aphorisms are the true form of the universal philosophy.

Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry.

Strictly speaking, the idea of a scientific poem is probably as nonsensical as that of a poetic science.

Novels are the Socratic dialogues of our time. Practical wisdom fled from school wisdom into this liberal form.

Wit as an instrument of revenge is as infamous as art is as a means of sensual titillation.

The main thing is to know something and to say it.

When reason and unreason come into contact, an electrical shock occurs. This is called polemics.

A priest is he who lives solely in the realm of the invisible, for whom all that is visible has only the truth of an allegory.

The bravest are the most tender

You can't legislate good will - that comes through education.

When I was a boy, I used to pull a big cross saw with my dad. He'd use his right hand, so I'd have to use my left.

Sometimes, of all the people in the world, the one who is the hardest to forgive-as well as perhaps the one who is most in need of our forgiveness-is the person looking back at us in the mirror.

Art does the same things dreams do. We have a hunger for dreams and art fulfills that hunger. So much of real life is a disappointment. That's why we have art.

It was my 44th win [in Monaco]; 44 is my race number; and it's been my number since I was 8. And it's my family's number as well. So it was a special day, for sure.

I regard Marxism as the most sinister and the most subtle form of totalitarianism.

You never do any good being put on the defensive and staying there.

What is it you want to change? Your hair, your face, your body? Why? For God is in love with all those things and he might weep when they are gone.