Mankind cannot get on without a certain amount of absurdity.

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

The majority of men... are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and... are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so.

Genius and madness have something in common: both live in a world that is different from that which exists for everyone else.

A pessimist is an optimist in full possession of the facts.

Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine.

Nature shows that with the growth of intelligence comes increased capacity for pain, and it is only with the highest degree of intelligence that suffering reaches its supreme point.

Break the spine of one of my books and I break yours.

We are capable of learning.

I would rather trust my child to a serpent than to a teacher who does not believe in God.

I was not born for courts and great affairs, but I pay my debts, believe and say my prayers.

We cannot build up the idea of the apostolate of the laity without the foundation of the liturgy.

Never have the young taken themselves so seriously, and the calamity is that they are listened to and deferred to by so many adults.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!

A great artist is never poor.

There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look.

Political doesn't necessarily mean you have an agenda.