Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common.

Man's sensitivity to the little things and insensitivity to the greatest are the signs of a strange disorder.

The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.

We never love a person, but only qualities.

Man is full of desires: he loves only those who can satisfy them all. "This man is a good mathematician," someone will say. But I have no concern for mathematics; he would take me for a proposition. "That one is a good soldier." He would take me for a besieged town. I need, that is to say, a decent man who can accommodate himself to all my desires in a general sort of way.

You gave me health that I might serve you; and so often I failed to use my good health in your service. Now you send me sickness in order to correct me Grant that, having ignored the things of spirit when my body was vigorous, I may now enjoy spiritual sweetness while my body groans with pain.

How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.