There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

Now, since everything else is furnished with the exact amount of needle and thread required to maintain its being, it is in truth incredible that we alone should be brought into the world in a defective and indigent state, in a state such that we cannot maintain ourselves without external aid.

Obstinacy and dogmatism are the surest signs of stupidity. Is there anything more confident, resolute, disdainful, grave and serious than an ass?

And I loathe people who find it harder to put up with a gown askew than with a soul askew and who judge a man by his bow, his bearing and his boots.

Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.

The laws of conscience, which we pretend to be derived from nature, proceed from Custom.