Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.
The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.
Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.
Man's true nature being lost, everything becomes his nature as, his true good being lost, everything becomes his good.
Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.
The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.
Men blaspheme what they do not know.
Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.
If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.
There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
When we are in love we seem to ourselves quite different from what we were before.
Vanity of science. Knowledge of physical science will not console me for ignorance of morality in time of affliction, but knowledge of morality will always console me for ignorance of physical science.
Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.
Men often take their imagination for their heart and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.
Imagination decides everything.
The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.
The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.
The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion.