Man's grandeur is that he knows himself to be miserable.

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.

Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long.... This one would not be so long had I but the leisure to make it shorter.

The mind naturally makes progress, and the will naturally clings to objects; so that for want of right objects, it will attach itself to wrong ones.

It is not possible to have reasonable grounds for not believing in miracles.

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.