It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.

The secrets of nature are concealed; her agency is perpetual, but we do not always discover its effects; time reveals them from age to age; and although she is always the same in herself, she is not always equally well known.

All our life passes in this way: we seek rest by struggling against certain obstacles, and once they are overcome, rest proves intolerable because of the boredom it produces.

The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.

It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.

We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.

How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!