"The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character."

"Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile."

"Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth."

"I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics."

"It is a unyielding truth that peace of heart is the greatest luxury life can bestow upon the mortal traveler."

"Woman, or more precisely put, perhaps, marriage, is the representative of life with which you are meant to come to terms."

"Life is an unwritten ledger; each passing sunrise offers a clean and waiting page. In this truth lies the bedrock of all virtue."

"Teenagers blithely skip off to uncertain futures, while their parents sit weeping curbside in the Volvo, because the adolescent brain isn't yet formed enough to recognize and evaluate risk."