To find recreation in amusements is not happiness; for this joy springs from alien and extrinsic sources, and is therefore dependent upon and subject….

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting..

Man is full of desires: he loves only those who can satisfy them all. "This man is a good mathematician," someone will say. But I have no concern for….

When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is u….

There is a lot of difference between tempting and leading into error. God tempts but does not lead into error. To tempt is to provide opportunities f….

Man is to himself the most wonderful object in nature; for he cannot conceive what the body is, still less what the mind is, and least of all how a b….

A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once..

There are two equally dangerous extremes-to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in..

Seeing too much to deny and too little to be sure, I am in a state to be pitied..

When we would think of God, how many things we find which turn us away from Him, and tempt us to think otherwise. All this is evil, yet it is innate..

Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably..

God only pours out his light into the mind after having subdued the rebellion of the will by an altogether heavenly gentleness which charms and wins ….

Curiosity is nothing more than vanity. More often than not we only seek knowledge to show it off..

On the occasions when I have pondered over men's various activities, the dangers and worries they are exposed to at Court or at war, from which so ma….

Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go..

Reverend Fathers, my letters did not usually follow each other at such close intervals, nor were they so long.... This one would not be so long had I….

The pagans do not know God, and love only the earth. The Jews know the true God, and love only the earth. The Christians know the true God, and do no….

Il est non seulement impossible, mais inutile de conna|"tre Dieu sans Je sus-Christ. It is not only impossible, but also useless to recognize God wi….

We must keep our thought secret, and judge everything by it, while talking like the people..

From whence comes it that a cripple in body does not irritate us, and that a crippled mind enrages us? It is because a cripple sees that we go right,….

The imagination enlarges little objects so as to fill our souls with a fantastic estimate; and, with rash insolence, it belittles the great to its ow….