The last thing one knows when writing a book is what to put first.
I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.
If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.
Men often take their imagination for their heart and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.
I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.
Jesus Christ is a God whom we approach without pride and before whom we humble ourselves without despair.
No animal admires another animal.
Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.
Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager,...
Everyone without exception is searching for happiness.
It is the heart which experiences God and not the reason.
In each action we must look beyond the action at our past present and future state and at others whom it affects and see the relation of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.
The virtue of a man ought to be measured not by his extraordinary exertions, but by his every-day conduct.
Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much
Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.
There is nothing we can now call our own, for what we call so is the effect of art; crimes are made by decrees of the senate, or by the votes of the people; and as here-to-fore we are burdened by vice...
Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.
Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billi...
Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.