Man finds nothing so intolerable as to be in a state of complete rest, without passions, without occupation, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nullity, loneliness, inadequacy, dependence, helplessness, emptiness.

The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God.

The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.

We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.

We are not satisfied with real life; we want to live some imaginary life in the eyes of other people and to seem different from what we actually are.

To scorn philosophy is truly to philosophize.

All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.