Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.
All I know is that I must soon die, but what I know least is this very death which I cannot escape.
Law was once introduced without reason, and has become reasonable.
The arithmetical machine produces effects that approach nearer to thought than all the actions of animals. But it does nothing that would enable us to attribute will to it, as to the animals.
I should not be a Christian but for the miracles.
How vain painting is-we admire the realistic depiction of objects which in their original state we don’t admire at all.
Too much pleasure disagrees with us. Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts.
Philosophers.-We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.
There are plenty of maxims in the world; all that remains is to apply them.
Must we kill to prevent there being any wicked? This is to make both parties wicked instead of one.
We see neither justice nor injustice which does not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees of latitude reverse all jurisprudence; a meridian decides the truth.
How shall one who is so weak in his childhood become really strong when he grows older? We only change our fancies.
Education produces natural intuitions, and natural intuitions are erased by education.
Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.
If there were only one religion, God would indeed be manifest.
Either God exists or He doesn’t. Either I believe in God or I don’t. Of the four possibilities, only one is to my disadvantage. To avoid that possibility, I believe in God.
All the trouble in the world is due to the fact that man cannot sit still in a room.
That a religion may be true, it must have knowledge of our nature.
The statements of atheists ought to be perfectly clear of doubt. Now it is not perfectly clear that the soul is material.
The present is never the mark of our designs. We use both past and present as our means and instruments, but the future only as our object and aim.