It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.

The self-despisers are less intent on their own increase than on the diminution of others. Where self-esteem is unobtainable, envy takes the place of greed.

Dissipation is a form of self-sacrifice.

When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else - we are the busiest people in the world.

It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned.

What Pascal said of an effective religion is true of any effective doctrine: it must be "contrary to nature, to common sense and to pleasure.

The purpose of philosophers is to show people what is right under their noses.