We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart. It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them.

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.

Orthodoxy on one side of the Pyrenees may be heresy on the other.

Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

Unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just.

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

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too.