God only pours out his light into the mind after having subdued the rebellion of the will by an altogether heavenly gentleness which charms and wins it.

Parents fear the destruction of natural affection in their children. What is this natural principle so liable to decay? Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first. Why is not custom nature? I suspect that this nature itself is but a first custom, as custom is a second nature.

All evil stems from this-that we do. Know how to handle your solitude.

The mind has its arrangement; it proceeds from principles to demonstrations. The heart has a different mode of proceeding.

One of the greatest artifices the devil uses to engage men in vice and debauchery, is to fasten names of contempt on certain virtues, and thus fill weak souls with a foolish fear of passing for scrupulous, should they desire to put them in practice.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.