It is superstitious to put one's hopes in formalities, but arrogant to refuse to submit to them.

Let man reawake and consider what he is compared with the reality of things; regard himself lost in this remote corner of Nature; and from the tiny cell where he lodges, to wit the Universe, weigh at their true worth earth, kingdoms, towns, himself. What is a man face to face with infinity?

It is certain that the soul is either mortal or immortal. The decision of this question must make a total difference in the principles of morals. Yet philosophers have arranged their moral system entirely independent of this. What an extraordinary blindness!

Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.

Vanity is but the surface.

Our nature consists in motion; complete rest is death.

The origins of disputes between philosophers is, that one class of them have undertaken to raise man by displaying his greatness, and the other to debase him by showing his miseries.