Vanity is illustrated in the cause and effect of love, as in the case of Cleopatra.

Man's greatness is great in that he knows himself wretched. A tree does not know itself wretched. It is then being wretched to know oneself wretched; but it is being great to know that one is wretched.

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

If we let ourselves believe that man began with divine grace, that he forfeited this by sin, and that he can be redeemed only by divine grace through the crucified Christ, then we shall find peace of mind never granted to philosophers. He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.

We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty. We seek happiness, and find only misery and death. We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or happiness.