Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.

The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

Kind words produce their own image in men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe and quiet and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings. We have not yet begun to use kind words in such abundance as they ought to be used.

Justice and truth are two such subtle points, that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.

What are our natural principles but principles of custom?

Curiosity is only vanity. Most frequently we wish not to know, but to talk. We would not take a sea voyage for the sole pleasure of seeing without hope of ever telling.

We feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold; qualities that are in excess are so much at variance with our feelings that they are impalpable: we do not feel them, though we suffer from their effects.