Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.
It is good to be tired and wearied by the futile search after the true good, that we may stretch out our arms to the Redeemer.
L'on a beau se cacher a' soi-me" me, l'on aime toujours. We vainly conceal from ourselves the fact that we are always in love.
The last advance of reason is to recognize that it is surpassed by innumerable things; it is feeble if it cannot realize that.
It is your own assent to yourself, and the constant voice of your own reason, and not of others, that should make you believe.
I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.
It is the conduct of God, who disposes all things kindly, to put religion into the mind by reason, and into the heart by grace.
Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.
Death itself is less painful when it comes upon us unawares than the bare contemplation of it, even when danger is far distant.
Console-toi, tu ne me chercherais pas si tu ne m'avais trouve . Comfort yourself.You would not seek me if you had not found me.
Men are so completely fools by necessity that he is but a fool in a higher strain of folly who does not confess his foolishness.
Being unable to cure death, wretchedness, and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.
If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?
We must know where to doubt, where to feel certain, where to submit. He who does not do so, understands not the force of reason.
Faith indeed tells what the senses do not tell, but not the contrary of what they see. It is above them and not contrary to them.
Anyone who found the secret of rejoicing when things go well without being annoyed when they go badly would have found the point.
One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.
Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward merit, for all will say that they are meritorious.
Muhammad established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by commanding his followers to lay down their lives.
Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.
Nothing is as approved as mediocrity, the majority has established it and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.
The multitude which is not brought to act as a unity, is confusion. That unity which has not its origin in the multitude is tyranny.
The majority is the best way, because it is visible, and has strength to make itself obeyed. Yet it is the opinion of the least able.
It is a dangerous experiment to call in gratitude as an ally to love. Love is a debt which inclination always pays, obligation never.
All men have happiness as their object: there is no exception. However different the means they employ, they all aim at the same end.
It has pleased God that divine verities should not enter the heart through the understanding, but the understanding through the heart.
Montaigne is wrong in declaring that custom ought to be followed simply because it is custom, and not because it is reasonable or just.
How I hate this folly of not believing in the Eucharist, etc.! If the gospel be true, if Jesus Christ be God, what difficulty is there?
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of... We know the truth not only by the reason, but by the heart." - Blaise Pascal
It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.
We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship.
If you want to be a real seeker of truth, you need to, at least once in your lifetime, doubt in, as much as it's possible, in everything.
There are vices which have no hold upon us, but in connection with others; and which, when you cut down the trunk, fall like the branches.
Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait.
We should seek the truth without hesitation; and, if we refuse it, we show that we value the esteem of men more than the search for truth.
What a difficult thing it is to ask someone's advice on a matter without coloring his judgment by the way in which we present our problem.
The world is satisfied with words. Few appreciate the things beneath. [Fr., Le monde se paye de paroles; peu approfondissement les choses.]
If god does not exist, one loses nothing by believing in him anyway, while if he does exist, one stands to lose everything by not believing.
Religion is so great a thing that it is right that those who will not take the trouble to seek it if it be obscure, should be deprived of it.
We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men. Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone.
All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions.... This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.
When some passion or effect is described in a natural style, we find within ourselves the truth of what we hear, without knowing it was there.
All err the more dangerously because each follows a truth. Their mistake lies not in following a falsehood but in not following another truth.
Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.
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.
Our notion of symmetry is derived form the human face. Hence, we demand symmetry horizontally and in breadth only, not vertically nor in depth.
To doubt is a misfortune, but to seek when in doubt is an indispensable duty. So he who doubts and seeks not is at once unfortunate and unfair.
Nothing is thoroughly approved but mediocrity. The majority has established this, and it fixes its fangs on whatever gets beyond it either way.
No religion except ours has taught that man is born in sin; none of the philosophical sects has admitted it; none therefore has spoken the truth