If you wish to gain an idea of what revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to acquire an idea of the nature of progress, call it To-morrow. To-morrow fulfils its work irresistibly, and it is already fulfilling it to-day. It

The cities make ferocious men because they make corrupt men. The mountain, the sea, the forest, make savage men; they develop the fierce side, but often without destroying the humane side.

To destroy abuses is not sufficient; customs must be modified. The mill is there no longer; the wind is still there.

To wipe out abuse is not enough; you have to change people's whole outlook. The mill is no longer standing, but the wind's still there, blowing away.

The convict was transfigured into Christ.

Invading armies can be resisted, invading ideas cannot be.

The book which the reader has under his eye at this moment is, from one end to the other, as a whole and in detail, whatever may be its intermittences, exceptions and faults, the march from evil to good, from the unjust to the just, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. Point of departure: matter; point of arrival: the soul. The hydra at the beginning, the angel at the end." Volume V, Book I, Chapter XX This

We must never fear robbers or murderers. They are dangers from outside, small dangers. It is ourselves we have to fear. Prejudice is the real robber, and vice the real murderer. Why should we be troubled by a threat to our person or our pocket? What we have to beware of is the threat to our souls.

When something goes 'wrong,' it is not the outer event that ought to be changed, but our inner state which responds to it. If we can build inner balance, we will no longer be blown over by the slightest gust, whether 'good' or 'bad'.

We are what we imagine ourselves to be.

So there's nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who's cool hates - and then making it cool.

I don't think that women need to smell interesting.