God could cause us considerable embarrassment by revealing all the secrets of nature to us: we should not know what to do for sheer apathy and boredom.

Man believes himself always greater than he is, and is esteemed less than he is worth.

Happy contractedness of youth, nay, of mankind in general, that they think neither of the high nor the deep, of the true nor the false, but only of what is suited to their own conceptions.

Hypotheses are lullabies for teachers to sing their students to sleep.

There is no better deliverance from the world than through art, and a man can form no surer bond with it.

The whole history of the Christian Church is a mixture of errors and violence.

My days are as happy as those reserved by God for his elect; and whatever be my fate hereafter, I can never say that I have not tasted joy— the purest joy of life.