E? loquence quipersuade par douceur, non par empire, en tyran, non en roi. Eloquence should persuade gently, not by force or like a tyrant or king..

Who can doubt that we exist only to love? Disguise it, in fact, as we will, we love without intermission... We live not a moment exempt from its infl….

It is not shameful for a man to succumb to pain and it is shameful to succumb to pleasure..

Nothing is so conformable to reason as to disavow reason..

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything..

Civil wars are the greatest of evils. They are inevitable, if we wish to reward merit, for all will say that they are meritorious..

It is man's natural sickness to believe that he possesses the Truth..

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it..

Most of man's trouble comes from his inability to be still..

Who confers reputation? who gives respect and veneration to persons, to books, to great men? Who but Opinion? How utterly insufficient are all the ri….

Why God has instituted Prayer:— To communicate to his creatures the dignity of causation..

Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings must be loved to be known..

Happiness is neither within us, nor without us. It is in the union of ourselves with God..

I have spent much time in the study of the abstract sciences; but the paucity of persons with whom you can communicate on such subjects disgusted me ….

Meanings receive their dignity from words instead of giving it to them..

Habit is a second nature, which destroys the first..

If you do not love too much, you do not love enough..

Our senses will not admit anything extreme. Too much noise confuses us, too much light dazzles us, too great distance or nearness prevents vision, to….

Curiosity is only vanity. We usually only want to know something so that we can talk about it..

All mankind's unhappiness derives from one thing: his inability to know how to remain in repose in one room..

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..