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.

Who so hath his mind on taking, hath it no more on what he taketh.

Man is the sole animal whose nudities offend his own companions, and the only one who, in his natural actions, withdraws and hides himself from his own kind.

Oh these foolish men! They could not create so much as a worm, but they create gods by the dozens.

It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.

My appetite comes to me while eating.

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