The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice.

If men knew themselves, God would heal and pardon them.

We must kill them in war, just because they live beyond the river. If they lived on this side, we would be called murderers.

Now, if the passions had no hold on us, a week and a hundred years would amount to the same.

This is what I see, and what troubles me. I look on all sides, and everywhere I see nothing but obscurity. Nature offers me nothing that is not a matter of doubt and disquiet.

We sometimes learn more from the sight of evil than from an example of good; and it is well to accustom ourselves to profit by the evil which is so common, while that which is good is so rare.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?