Our great mistake is to try to exact from each person virtues which he does not possess, and to neglect the cultivation of those which he has. - Marguerite Yourcenar

Ce n'était pas trop de toute une vie pour confronter l'un par l'autre ce monde où nous sommes et ce monde qui est nous.

Human beings betray their worst failings when they marvel to find that a world ruler is neither foolishly indolent, presumptuous, nor cruel.

For my part I have sought liberty more than power, and power only because it can lead to freedom. What interested me was not a philosophy of the free man (all who try that have proved tiresome), but a technique: I hoped to discover the hinge where our will meets and moves with destiny, and where discipline strengthens, instead of restraining, our nature.