When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

Our senses perceive no extreme. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great distance or proximity hinders ourview. Too great length and too great brevity of discourse tends to obscurity; too much truth is paralyzing.... In short, extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we them.

The world is satisfied with words, few care to dive beneath the surface.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

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.

The captain of a ship is not chosen from those of the passengers who comes from the best family.