French philosopher, author, dramatist, journalist, world federalist, and political activist
Retaliation is related to nature and instinct, not to law. Law, by definition, cannot obey the same rules as nature.
To know oneself, one should assert oneself.
The modern mind is in complete disarray. Knowledge has stretched itself to the point where neither the world nor our intelligence can find any foot-hold. It is a fact that we are suffering from nihilism.
An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
Real nobility is based on scorn, courage, and profound indifference.
Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.
Beauty is unbearable, drives us to despair, offering us for a minute the glimpse of an eternity that we should like to stretch out over the whole of time.
The artist forges himself to the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from. That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.
The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.