Our character is composed of our ideas and our feelings: and, since it has been proved that we give ourselves neither feelings nor ideas, our character does not depend on us. If it did depend on us, there is nobody who would not be perfect. If one does not reflect, one thinks oneself master of everything; but when one does reflect, one realizes that one is master of nothing

If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

Common sense is not so common.

The biggest reward for a thing well done is to have done it.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child's board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.