In order to master the unruly torrent of life the learned man meditates, the poet quivers, and the political hero erects the fortress of his will.

The poet begins where the man ends. The man's lot is to live his human life, the poet's to invent what is nonexistent.

We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.

Revolution is not the uprising against preexisting order, but the setting up of a new order contradictory to the traditional one

We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter who makes no demands on himself.

Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do.