Does not vanity itself cease to be blamable, is it not even ennobled, when it is directed to laudable objects, when it confines itself to prompting us to great and generous actions?

Give, but, if possible, spare the poor man the shame of begging.

The world is the house of the strong.

Instinct guides the animal better than the man. In the animal it is pure, in man it is led astray by his reason and intelligence.

What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its duration by the length of your own days.

Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.

If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him.