I have described religion as the metaphysics of the people.

The man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as if he were ascending; he only sees the earth sinking deeper below him.

That human life must be some kind of mistake is sufficiently proved by the simple observation that man is a compound of needs which are hard to satisfy; that their satisfaction achieves nothing but a painless condition in which he is only given over to boredom . . .

Life is a business that does not cover the costs.

Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remember that when these faults appear in others it is our follies and vices that we behold.

Every generation, no matter how paltry its character, thinks itself much wiser than the one immediately preceding it, let alone those that are more remote.

We seldom think of what we have but always of what we lack. Therefore, rather than grateful, we are bitter.