Some seek good or happiness in power, others in science, still others in pleasure.  As to those who really understand what their happiness is, they know that it need not be possessed by the few, but by everyone.  They know that the true good is the lot of all men at the same time, without division or jealousy.  No one, unless he wishes, can lose it.  (Pascal, Thoughts of the Wise, xxvii, 4)

We possess a single infallible guide and this is the universal spirit that lives in men as a whole, and in each one of us, which makes us aspire to what we should aspire.  It is the spirit that commands the tree to grow towards the sun, the flower to throw off its seeds in autumn, and us to reach out towards God, and by so doing we become united to each other.  (Daily Reading, November 16th)

The true faith attracts people to it, not by the promise of good to the believer, but by the indication of the only means of saving us from all evil, and from death itself.  (Daily Reading, September 11th)

Salvation lies neither in the cult, nor in the practice of a religion, but in the clear comprehension of the meaning of our life.  (Daily Reading, September 11th)

That is all that I want to say.

I want to say that we are in a situation and in a period in which we can no longer remain, and that, willingly or unwillingly, we are obliged to start out on a new path.  And to follow it, we do not have to invent a new religion, or any scientific theories explaining the meaning of life and serving as a guide to it.  It would be futile, above all, to have recourse to any special activity.  It will be sufficient to adopt this single rule: free ourselves from the superstitions of false and static Christianity.

Let each one understand that he has not the right, or even the possibility, to organize the lives of others, but that he, in his own life, should act in conformity with the supreme religious law that has been revealed to him.  Let each one do this, and the order of things that reigns among the so-called Christian nations – an order that makes the whole world suffer, which answers so little to the demands of our consciences, and which makes humanity unhappier each day – will immediately disappear.

Whoever you are – sovereign, judge, proprietor, worker, or beggar – reflect and take pity on your soul.  No matter how obscured your brain may be by your authority or your wealth, no matter how badly treated you may be or how irritated by misery and humiliations, you possess and you manifest, like all of us, the divine spirit.  That spirit asks you clearly today, “Why do you make yourself a martyr and make all those about you unhappy?”  Understand who you are, just how insignificant and infallible is that which you call you – your spiritual self.  Having understood it, commence to live entirely for the accomplishment of the superior mission of your life, which has been revealed to you by universal wisdom, by the doctrine of Christ, and by your own conscience.

Put the good of your life in the progressive freedom of your mind, freedom from all the illusions of the flesh, and in the improvement of your love for your fellow man, which is, after all, the same thing.  As soon as you will have begun to live thus, you will be aware of a joyous sensation full of liberty and happiness.  You will be surprised to see that the same external conditions, with which you were so concerned, and which were far from realization, will not prevent the coming of the greatest possible happiness.

And if you are unhappy (I know that you are), reflect upon what has been proposed to you here, and which I have not imagined, but which is the result of the thoughts and feelings of the best minds and human hearts, and which is the only way to deliver you from your unhappiness and the only way to acquire the greatest good that you can get in this life.

That is what I have wanted to say to my brothers before dying.