The last proceeding of reason is to recognize that there is an infinity of things which are beyond it. There is nothing so conformable to reason as this disavowal of reason.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

We never live, but we hope to live; and as we are always arranging to be happy, it must be that we never are so.

Man is so made that by continually telling him he is a fool he believes it, and by continually telling it to himself he makes himself believe it. For man holds an inward talk with himself, which it pays him to regulate.

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

When a natural discourse paints a passion or an effect, one feels within oneself the truth of what one reads, which was there before, although one did not know it. Hence one is inclined to love him who makes us feel it, for he has not shown us his own riches, but ours. ...such community of intellect that we have with him necessarily inclines the heart to love.

I rather live as if God exists to find out that He doesn't than live as if he doesn't exist to find out He does.