Anyone who does not see the vanity of the world is very vain himself. So who does not see it, apart from young people whose lives are all noise, diversions, and thoughts for the future? But take away their diversion and you will see them bored to extinction. Then they feel their nullity without recognizing it, for nothing could be more wretched than to be intolerably depressed as soon as one is reduced to introspection with no means of diversion.

Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.

The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God.

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.

Things have different qualities, and the soul different inclinations; for nothing is simple which is presented to the soul, and the soul never presents itself simply to any object. Hence it comes that we weep and laugh at the same thing.

One must have deeper motives and judge everything accordingly, but go on talking like an ordinary person.

The last advance of reason is to recognize that it is surpassed by innumerable things; it is feeble if it cannot realize that.