One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us and whereto our passions transport us. But those which by long habit are rooted in a strong and anchored in a powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies, which diverts us here and there.

I turn my gaze inward. I fix it there and keep it busy. I look inside myself. I continually observe myself.

It is fear that I stand most in fear of, in sharpness it exceeds every other feeling.

Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.

The good opinion of the vulgar is injurious.

Why did I love her? Because it was her; because it was me.

There is the name and the thing; the name is a sound which sets a mark on and denotes the thing. The name is no part of the thing nor of the substance; it is an extraneous piece added to the thing, and outside of it.