One-half of life is admitted by us to be passed in sleep, in which, however, it may appear otherwise, we have no perception of truth, and all our feelings are delusions; who knows but the other half of life, in which we think we are awake, is a sleep also, but in some respects different from the other, and from which we wake when we, as we call it, sleep. As a man dreams often that he is dreaming, crowding one dreamy delusion on another.

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

All men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end.

Muhammad established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives.

And is it not obvious that, just as it is a crime to disturb the peace when truth reigns, it is also a crime to remain at peace when the truth is being destroyed?

All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.