Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in him.

Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.

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 last thing we decide in writing a book is what to put first.

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect. Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true and then show that it is.

Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.