I condemn equally those who choose to praise man, those who choose to condemn him and those who choose to divert themselves, and I can only approve of those who seek with groans.

Law, without force, is impotent.

How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.

Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.

It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.

Just as I do not know where I came from, so I do not know where I am going. All I know is that when I leave this world I shall fall forever into oblivion, or into the hands of an angry God, without knowing which of the two will be my lot for eternity. Such is my state of mind, full of weakness and uncertainty. The only conclusion I can draw from all this is that I must pass my days without a thought of trying to find out what is going to happen to me.

Dull minds are never either intuitive or mathematical.