A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it. Progress is the stride of God. There is nothing like a dream to create the future. We may remark in passing that to be blind and beloved may, in this world where nothing is perfect, be among the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness. The supreme happiness in life is the assurance of being loved; of being loved for oneself, even in spite of oneself; and this assurance the blind man possesses. In his affliction, to be served is to be caressed. Does he lack anything? no. Possessing love he is not deprived of light. A love, moreover, that is wholly pure. There can be no blindness where there is this certainty. We are on the side of religion as opposed to religions, and we are among those who believe in the wretched inadequacy of sermons and the sublimity of prayer. To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. Thought is the labor of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure. Those who live are those who fight. There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come. There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees. |