[Moralistic] novels are at the same disadvantage as teachers: children never believe them, because they make everything that happens relate to the lesson at hand.

... in the history of the human mind there has never been a useful thought or a profound truth that has not found its century and admirers.

Divine Wisdom, intending to detain us some time on earth, has done well to cover with a veil the prospect of the life to come; for if our sight could clearly distinguish the opposite bank, who would remain on this tempestuous coast of time?

Exile: A tomb in which you can get mail.

Why shouldn't man be as angry about not having always been alive as about having to stop being alive?

Between God and love, I recognize no mediator but my conscience.

The life of famous men was more glorious in antiquity; the life of obscure men is happier with the moderns.