There is naught interesting on earth save its religions.
There is a universal religion made for the alchemists of thought, a religion which is disengaged from man, considered as a heavenly reminder.
XLVII
Saint-Marc Girardin has spoken one word that will endure: "Let us be mediocre!" Set that beside this of Robespierre: "Those that do not believe in the immortality of their being, do themselves justice." The word of Saint-Marc Girardin implies a bitter hatred of the sublime.
XLVIII
Theory of true civilization. It lies not in gas, nor in steam, nor in tilting tables. It lies in the diminution of the traces of original sin.
Nomad peoples, shepherds, hunters, farmers, even cannibals, all can rise superior in energy, in personal dignity, to our races of the West. We perhaps shall be destroyed.
XLIX
It is through leisure, in part, that I have grown,—to my great detriment; for leisure, without wealth, increases debts; but to my great gain, in regard to sensibility, meditation, and the faculty of dandyism and of dilettantism.