Fashion is a tyrant from which nothing frees us. We must suit ourselves to its fantastic tastes. But being compelled to live under its foolish laws, the wise man is never the first to follow, nor the last to keep it.

We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.

The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it.

The sum of a man's problems come from his inability to be alone in a silent room.

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

To understand is to forgive.

There is nothing that we can see on earth which does not either show the wretchedness of man or the mercy of God. One either sees the powerlessness of man without God, or the strength of man with God.