Is it courage in a dying man to go, in weakness and in agony, to affront an almighty and eternal God?

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

What can be seen on earth points to neither the total absence nor the obvious presence of divinity, but to the presence of a hidden God. Everything bears this mark.

Imagination magnifies small objects with fantastic exaggeration until they fill our soul, and with bold insolence cuts down great things to its own size, as when speaking of God.

Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.

We are so presumptuous that we wish to be known to all the world, even to those who come after us; and we are so vain that the esteem of five or six persons immediately around us is enough to amuse and satisfy us.

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