If our happiness, as we said above, depends upon our conception of the
universe, this is, in a great measure, because our morality depends upon
it. And our morality depends much less upon the nature than upon the
size of that conception. We should be better, nobler, more moral in the
midst of a universe proved to be without morality, but conceived on an
infinite scale, than in a universe which attained the perfection of the
human ideal, but which appeared to us circumscribed and devoid of
mystery. It is, before all, important to make as vast as possible the
place in which are developed all our thoughts and all our feelings; and
this place is none other than that in which we picture the universe. We
are unable to move except within the idea which we create for ourselves
of the world in which we move. Everything starts from that, everything
flows from it; and all our acts, most often unknown to ourselves, are
modified by the height and the breadth of that immense well of force
which exists at the summit of our conscience.