When I consider the small span of my life absorbed in the eternity of all time, or the small part of space which I can touch or see engulfed by the infinite immensity of spaces that I know not and that know me not, I am frightened and astonished to see myself here instead of there … now instead of then.

The entire ocean is affected by a single pebble.

Philosophers.-We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.

The Christian's God does not merely consist of a God who is the Author of mathematical truths and the order of the elements. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of the Christians, is a God of love and consolation.

All the good maxims which are in the world fail when applied to one's self.

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

[On vanity:] The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the face of the earth would have changed.