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?

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.

We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that it is even, untrue that it is odd; for the addition of a unit does not change its nature; yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even (this certainly holds of every finite number). Thus we may quite well know that there is a God without knowing what He is.

If it is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are, it is a terrible one to live an evil life, while believing in God

If man should commence by studying himself, he would see how impossible it is to go further.

It is not in Montaigne, but in myself, that I find all that I see in him.

All this visible world is but an imperceptible point in the ample bosom of nature.