Our senses will not admit anything extreme. Too much noise confuses us, too much light dazzles us, too great distance or nearness prevents vision, too great prolixity or brevity weakens an argument, too much pleasure gives pain, too much accordance annoys.

Imagination magnifies small objects with fantastic exaggeration until they fill our soul, and with bold insolence cuts down great things to its own size, as when speaking of God.

Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.

Jesus was in a garden, not of delight as the first Adam, in which he destroyed himself and the whole human race, but in one of agony, in which he saved himself and the whole human race.

When some passion or effect is described in a natural style, we find within ourselves the truth of what we hear, without knowing it was there.

All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.... This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.

All the good maxims which are in the world fail when applied to one's self.