Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.

How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!

Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves as united to him.

The two principles of truth, reason and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception. The senses deceive reason through false appearances, and the senses are disturbed by passions, which produce false impressions.

All err the more dangerously because each follows a truth. Their mistake lies not in following a falsehood but in not following another truth.

Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room.

We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them.