I leaf through books, I do not study them. What I retain of them is something I no longer recognize as anyone else's.

The smallest annoyances, disturb us the most.

There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one's melancholy.

It was truly very good reason that we should be beholden to God only, and to the favour of his grace, for the truth of so noble a belief, since from his sole bounty we receive the fruit of immortality, which consists in the enjoyment of eternal beatitude.... The more we give and confess to owe and render to God, we do it with the greater Christianity.

If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.

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.

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.