How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.

I am in the utmost perplexity, yand have wished a hundred times, that if there is a A God, nature would manifest him without ambiguity, and that if there is not, every imaginary sign of his existence might vanish : in short, let nature speak distinctly, or be totally silent, and I shall know what course to take.

All men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end.

Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.

Caesar was too old, it seems to me, to go off and amuse himself conquering the world. Such a pastime was all right for Augustus and Alexander; they were young men, not easily held in check, but Caesar ought to have been more mature.

The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.

Those great efforts of intellect, upon which the mind sometimes touches, are such that it cannot maintain itself there. It only leaps to them, not as upon a throne, forever, but merely for an instant.