Little things console us because little things afflict us.
We never love a person, but only qualities.
Happiness is neither without us nor within us. It is in God, both without us and within us.
Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.
The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.
The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death.
All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.
Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.
Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.
I have discovered that all human evil comes from this: man’s being unable to sit still and quiet in a room alone.
Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.
Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.
Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.
One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.
Justice and truth are too such subtle points that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.
The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.
When one does not love too much, one does not love enough.
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.
Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.
Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.
