The true sage is not he who sees, but he who, seeing the furthest, has the deepest love for mankind.

An act of goodness is of itself an act of happiness.

An obstacle is not a discouragement. It may become one, but only with our own consent. So long as we refuse to be discouraged, we cannot be discouraged.

Physical suffering apart, not a single sorrow exists that can touch us except through our thoughts.

All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than the animals that know nothing. A day will come when science will turn upon its error and no longer hesitate to shorten our woes. A day will come when it will dare and act with certainty; when life, grown wiser, will depart silently at its hour, knowing that it has reached its term.

Sacrifice may be a flower that virtue will pluck on its road, but it was not to gather this flower that virtue set forth on its travels.

Our reason may prove what it will: our reason is only a feeble ray that has issued from Nature.