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

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

If our condition were truly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to make ourselves happy.

Amusement that is excessive and followed only for its own sake, allures and deceives us.

It has pleased God that divine verities should not enter the heart through the understanding, but the understanding through the heart.

All the dignity of man consists in thought. Thought is therefore by its nature a wonderful and incomparable thing. It must have strange defects to be contemptible. But it has such, so that nothing is more ridiculous. How great it is in its nature! How vile it is in its defects! But what is this thought? How foolish it is!

Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even I who write this, and you who read this.