It is a dangerous experiment to call in gratitude as an ally to love. Love is a debt which inclination always pays, obligation never.

To understand is to forgive.

The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.

I should not be a Christian but for the miracles.

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

Discourses on humility are a source of pride in the vain and of humility in the humble.

Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.