We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.

Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness.

If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them.

The majority is the best way, because it is visible, and has strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the least able.

Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years would amount to the same.

The gist is that good and evil are foreordained. What is foreordained comes necessarily to be after a prior act of divine volition...Rather, everything small and large is written and comes to be in a known and expected measure.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.