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.

Habit is a man's sole comfort. We dislike doing without even unpleasant things to which we have become accustomed.

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

No one feels himself easy in a garden which does not look like the open country.

The march of intellect, which licks all the world into shape, has even reached the devil.

I was oppressed with the sensations I then felt; I sunk under the weight of them.

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.