Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose, and then abandon it.

Man is so made that if he is told often enough that he is a fool he believes it.

Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. It is an image of the condition of man.

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.

Thought makes the whole dignity of man; therefore endeavor to think well, that is the only morality.

Sneezing absorbs all the functions of the soul just as much as the [sexual] act, but we do not draw from it the same conclusions against the greatness of man, because it is involuntary; although we bring it about, we do so involuntarily. It is not for the sake of the thing in itself but for another end, and is therefore not a sign of man's weakness, or his subjection to this act.

When everyone is moving towards depravity, no one seems to be moving, but if someone stops he shows up the others who are rushing on, by acting as a fixed point.