One sentence can change everything. Little anthology to re-enchant the daily life of Anne Ducrocq

There are source texts that water us in the great deserts of our lives. Texts whose reading or even the memory ignites a spark and puts us back on the road. Perhaps this is the ultimate goal of every word: to awaken a breath, to raise humanity to its knees.

When Anne Ducrocq, who herself admits having been saved by texts, offered me to share for One sentence can change a life a refuge text, I immediately accepted, enchanted by this project. It thus asked about thirty people (including Alexandre Jollien, Christophe André, Fabrice Midal, Perla and Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber) to take part in this adventure. The result is magnificent, because not only do we discover unknown works that are beacons for committed beings, but also, because by revealing these words that touch them, all these authors reveal themselves. We thus touch the universal intimacy.

Veronique Desjardins upsets us by evoking the successive disappearance of her father, her mother and her husband Arnaud Desjardins in the space of sixteen months. She tells how Prajnanpad's words enlightened and accompanied her in this tsunami. Years of practice in the way of this master put to the test in pain. So she clung to this phrase from Prajnanpad: “Everything that comes to you comes as a challenge and as an opportunity”.

The texts presented in this book go in this direction and reveal this light which can come out of darkness. All spiritual traditions are intertwined, for it is the cry of all humanity seeking to stand in the storm. This aspiration for breath, this quest for joy against all odds takes all forms to unite in the same surge of life. For my part, I chose a text by Etty Hilesum, this young Jewess who wrote sublime lines before dying in a concentration camp. Even in the ultimate test, it aspires only to be a balm for the visible and the invisible. An outstretched hand in the heart of tears. She is the very example of benevolence that saves.

Anne Ducrocq has accompanied these texts with hundreds of superb quotes, each as deep and powerful as the next. This book is a journey to the hearts of men who aspire to find a little light on earth.