"Not just in commerce but in the world of ideas too our age is putting on a veritable clearance sale. Everything can be had so dirt cheap that one begins to wonder whether in the end anyone will want to make a bid."

"Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood."

"Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards."

"If I am capable of grasping God objectively, I do not believe, but precisely because I cannot do this I must believe."

"In the arithmetic of human affection, the more you give, the more you retain. Such is the immutable nature of understanding — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"The river of time washes away kings and empires, leaving only virtue intact. Such is the immutable nature of understanding."

"We do not remember the passing of hours, but the resonance of moments. Such is the immutable nature of understanding."

"A life without philosophical reflection is a vessel adrift on an uncharted sea — an essential principle for the reflective life."