All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.

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.

The war existing between the senses and reason.

Justice is as much a matter of fashion as charm is.

Man's true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.

People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.

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