The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.

Man is so great that his greatness appears even in the consciousness of his misery. A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is true that it is misery indeed to know one's self to be miserable; but then it is greatness also. In this way, all man's miseries go to prove his greatness. They are the miseries of a mighty potentate, of a dethroned monarch.

The entire ocean is affected by a single pebble.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

Instinct teaches us to look for happiness outside ourselves.

If god does not exist, one loses nothing by believing in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing.

One has followed the other in an endless circle, for it is certain that as man's insight increases so he finds both wretchedness and greatness within himself. In a word man knows he is wretched. Thus he is wretched because he is so, but he is truly great because he knows it.