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.

All our life passes in this way: we seek rest by struggling against certain obstacles, and once they are overcome, rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces.

Law was once introduced without reason, and has become reasonable.

The state of man is inconstancy, ennui, anxiety.

The multitude which does not reduce itself to unity is confusion.

If we must not act save on a certainty, we ought not to act on religion, for it is not certain. But how many things we do on an uncertainty, sea voyages, battles!

The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.