The only thing which consoles for our miseries is diversion, and yet this is the greatest of our miseries. For it is this which principally hinders us from reflecting upon ourselves and which makes us imperceptibly ruin ourselves.

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us.

All our life passes in this way: we seek rest by struggling against certain obstacles, and once they are overcome, rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces.

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

Instinct teaches us to look for happiness outside ourselves.