We have so exalted a notion of the human soul that we cannot bear to be despised, or even not to be esteemed by it. Man, in fact, places all his happiness in this esteem.
Things have different qualities, and the soul different inclinations; for nothing is simple which is presented to the soul, and the soul never presents itself simply to any object. Hence it comes that we weep and laugh at the same thing.
It is not permitted to the most equitable of men to be a judge in his own cause.
Reason is the slow and torturous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it.
Love has no age as it is always renewing itself.
What reason have atheists for saying that we cannot rise again? That what has never been, should be, or that what has been, should be again? Is it more difficult to come into being than to return to it.
To find recreation in amusement is not happiness.
Perfect clarity would profit the intellect but damage the will.
It is right that what is just should be obeyed. It is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed.
In proportion as our own mind is enlarged we discover a greater number of men of originality. Commonplace people see no difference between one man and another.
No soul of high estate can take pleasure in slander. It betrays a weakness.
It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe.
All err the more dangerously because each follows a truth. Their mistake lies not in following a falsehood but in not following another truth.
For nature is an image of Grace, and visible miracles are images of the invisible.
However vast a man’s spiritual resources, he is capable of but one great passion.
When we see an effect happen always in the same manner, we infer that it takes place by a natural necessity; as, for instance, that the sun will rise to morrow; but nature often deceives us, and will not submit to its own rules.
The married should not forget that to speak of love begets love.
To deny, to believe, and to doubt well are to a man as the race is to a horse.
The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.
Man’s true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature; as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.