Newton, Pascal, Bossuet, Racine, F?nelon -- that is to say, some of the most enlightened men on earth, in the most philosophical of all ages -- have been believers in Jesus Christ; and the great Cond?, when dying, repeated these noble words, "Yes, I shall see God as He is, face to face!".

Sometimes a lengthened period of prosperity melts away in a moment; just as the heat of summer flies before a day of tempest.

If a man is endowed with a noble and courageous soul, if he is painstaking, proud, ambitious, without meanness, of a profound a deep-seated intelligence, I dare assert that he lacks nothing to be neglected by the great and men in high office, who fear, more than other men, those whom they cannot dominate.

No one is more liable to make mistakes than he who acts only on reflexion.

The falsest of all philosophies is that which, under the pretext of delivering men from the embarrassment of their passions, counsels idleness and the abandonment and neglect of themselves.

We have neither the strength nor the opportunity to accomplish all the good and all the evil which we design.

The favorites of fortune or of fame topple from their pedestals before our eyes without diverting us from ambition.