Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.

Just as I do not know where I came from, so I do not know where I am going. All I know is that when I leave this world I shall fall forever into oblivion, or into the hands of an angry God, without knowing which of the two will be my lot for eternity. Such is my state of mind, full of weakness and uncertainty. The only conclusion I can draw from all this is that I must pass my days without a thought of trying to find out what is going to happen to me.

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.

What matters it that man should have a little more knowledge of the universe? If he has it, he gets little higher. Is he not always infinitely removed from the end, and is not the duration of our life equally removed from eternity, even if it lasts ten years longer?

By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.

The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God.

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