Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Justice and truth are two such subtle points, that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.
Thought makes the whole dignity of man; therefore endeavor to think well, that is the only morality.
[On vanity:] The nose of Cleopatra: if it had been shorter, the face of the earth would have changed.
By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world.
Is it courage in a dying man to go, in weakness and in agony, to affront an almighty and eternal God?
Condition de l'homme: inconstance, ennui, inquie tude. Man's condition. Inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.
People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.
Eloquence; it requires the pleasant and the real; but the pleasant must itself be drawn from the true.
What a strange vanity painting is; it attracts admiration by resembling the original, we do not admire.
The weakness of human reason appears more evidently in those who know it not than in those who know it.
We are only falsehood, duplicity, contradiction; we both conceal and disguise ourselves from ourselves.
The whole title by which you possess your property, is not a title of nature but of a human institution.
If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy.
It is right that what is just should be obeyed. It is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed.
The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.
The Fall is an offense to human reason, but once accepted, it makes perfect sense of the human condition.
The truth about nature we discover with our brains. The truth about religion we discover with our hearts.
One must have deeper motives and judge everything accordingly, but go on talking like an ordinary person.
All the troubles of life come upon us because we refuse to sit quietly for a while each day in our rooms.
If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.
In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't.
Some vices only lay hold of us by means of others, and these, like branches, fall on removal of the trunk.
We view things not only from different sides, but with different eyes; we have no wish to find them alike.
If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.
He who cannot believe is cursed, for he reveals by his unbelief that God has not chosen to give him grace.
Those whom we call ancient were really new in all things, and properly constituted the infancy of mankind.
Plurality which is not reduced to unity is confusion; unity which does not depend on plurality is tyranny.
Do little things as if they were great, because of the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ who dwells in thee.
I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world.
It's not those who write the laws that have the greatest impact on society. It's those who write the songs.
All the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.
All mankind's unhappiness derives from one thing: his inability to know how to remain in repose in one room.
To ridicule philosophy is truly philosophical. [Fr., Se moquer de la philosophie c'est vraiment philosophe.]
Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)
The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.
Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.
Those are weaklings who know the truth and uphold it as long as it suits their purpose, and then abandon it.
The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.
Man's sensitivity to the little things and insensitivity to the greatest are the signs of a strange disorder.
Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.
How vain is painting, which is admired for reproducing the likeness of things whose originals are not admired.
Those who are clever in imagination are far more pleased with themselves than prudent men could reasonably be.
How vain painting is, exciting admiration by its resemblance to things of which we do not admire the originals.
The serene, silent beauty of a holy life is the most powerful influence in the world, next to the night of God.
Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.
Through space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; through thought I comprehend the world.
Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable.
Beauty is a harmonious relation between something in our nature and the quality of the object which delights us.
I rather live as if God exists to find out that He doesn't than live as if he doesn't exist to find out He does.