Most of man's trouble comes from his inability to be still.

If man were happy, he would be the more so, the less he was diverted, like the saints and God.

Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.

Fashion is a tyrant from which nothing frees us. We must suit ourselves to its fantastic tastes. But being compelled to live under its foolish laws, the wise man is never the first to follow, nor the last to keep it.

Man's greatness is great in that he knows himself wretched. A tree does not know itself wretched. It is then being wretched to know oneself wretched; but it is being great to know that one is wretched.

We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.

Mutual cheating is the foundation of society.