Now, since our condition accommodates things to itself, and transforms them according to itself, we no longer know things in their reality; for nothing comes to us that is not altered and falsified by our Senses. When the compass, the square, and the rule are untrue, all the calculations drawn from them, all the buildings erected by their measure, are of necessity also defective and out of plumb. The uncertainty of our senses renders uncertain everything that they produce.

He that I am reading seems always to have the most force.

Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. "What!" he said, "Must we void ourselves as we run?" Use our timeas best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.

Truly it is reasonable to make a great distinction between the faults that come from our weakness and those that come from our wickedness.

I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not conformable to it; the essence of it is abstruse and occult, but the appearances easy and showy.

Once you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours; for you can't spend it.

I honor most those to whom I show least honor; and where my soul moves with great alacrity, I forget the proper steps of ceremony.