Men are so completely fools by necessity that he is but a fool in a higher strain of folly who does not confess his foolishness.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

Christian piety annihilates the egoism of the heart; worldly politeness veils and represses it.

There is no arena in which vanity displays itself under such a variety of forms as in conversation.

By a peculiar prerogative, not only each individual is making daily advances in the sciences, and may make advances in morality (which is the science, by way of eminence, of living well and being happy), but all mankind together is making a continual progress in proportion as the universe grows older. So that the whole human race, during the course of so many ages, may be considered as one man who never ceases to live and learn.

I condemn equally those who choose to praise man, those who choose to condemn him and those who choose to divert themselves, and I can only approve of those who seek with groans.

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