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

We desire truth, and find within ourselves only uncertainty. We seek happiness, and find only misery and death. We cannot but desire truth and happiness, and are incapable of certainty or happiness.

Imagination cannot make fools wise, but it makes them happy, as against reason, which only makes its friends wretched: one covers them with glory, the other with shame.

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

There are people who lie simply for the sake of lying.

If ignorance were bliss, he'd be a blister

Those who make antitheses by forcing the sense are like men who make false windows for the sake of symmetry. Their rule is not to speak justly, but to make accurate figures.