Let it not be imagined that the life of a good Christian must be a life of melancholy and gloominess; for he only resigns some pleasures to enjoy others infinitely better.

As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry.

It is not possible to have reasonable grounds for not believing in miracles.

Custom creates the whole of equity, for the simple reason that it is accepted.

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

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.

Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.