Too much pleasure disagrees with us. Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts.

It is not shameful for a man to succumb to pain and it is shameful to succumb to pleasure.

If a man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God?

Man is so great that his greatness appears even in the consciousness of his misery. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is true that it is misery indeed to know one's self to be miserable; but then it is greatness also. In this way, all man's miseries go to prove his greatness. They are the miseries of a mighty potentate, of a dethroned monarch.

Death itself is less painful when it comes upon us unawares than the bare contemplation of it, even when danger is far distant.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

And is it not obvious that, just as it is a crime to disturb the peace when truth reigns, it is also a crime to remain at peace when the truth is being destroyed?