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

We must kill them in war, just because they live beyond the river. If they lived on this side, we would be called murderers.

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.

The pagans do not know God, and love only the earth. The Jews know the true God, and love only the earth. The Christians know the true God, and do not love the earth.

Vanity is so anchored in the heart of man that a soldier, a soldier's servant, a cook, a porter brags and wishes to have his admirers. Even philosophers wish for them. Those who write against vanity want to have the glory of having written well; and those who read it desire the glory of having read it. I who write this have perhaps this desire, and perhaps those who will read it.

Concupiscence and force are the source of all our actions; concupiscence causes voluntary actions, force involuntary ones.

Eloquence is the painting of thought.