All men naturally hate one another. I hold it a fact, that if men knew exactly what one says of the other, there would not be four friends in the world.

Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.

What can be seen on earth points to neither the total absence nor the obvious presence of divinity, but to the presence of a hidden God. Everything bears this mark.

Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God, and some defects to show that she is only His image.

Love has no age as it is always renewing itself.

Everyone, without exception, is searching for happiness.

Those who write against vanity want the glory of having written well, and their readers the glory of reading well, and I who write this have the same desire, as perhaps those who read this have also.