The parts of the universe ... all are connected with each other in such a way that I think it to be impossible to understand any one without the whole.

Most of man's trouble comes from his inability to be still.

[On vanity:] The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the face of the earth would have changed.

Nature, which alone is good, is wholly familiar and common.

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

All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theater. It is a representation of the passions so natural and so delicate that it excites them and gives birth to them in our hearts, and, above all, to that of love.

For nature is an image of Grace, and visible miracles are images of the invisible.