Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
Man is so made that by continually telling him he is a fool he believes it, and by continually telling it to himself he makes himself believe it. For man holds an inward talk with himself, which it pays him to regulate.
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 without Jesus.
The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing. We feel it in a thousand things. I say that the heart naturally loves the Universal Being, and naturally loves itself; and it gives itself to one or the other, and hardens itself against one or the other, as it chooses...it is the heart that feels God, not the reason; this is faith.
Curiosity is nothing more than vanity. More often than not we only seek knowledge to show it off.
What a strange vanity painting is; it attracts admiration by resembling the original, we do not admire.
Justice and truth are two such subtle points, that our tools are too blunt to touch them accurately.
It is certain that those who have the living faith in their hearts see at once that all existence is none other than the work of the God whom they adore. But for those in whom this light is extinguished, [if we were to show them our proofs of the existence of God] nothing is more calculated to arouse their contempt. . . .
Let us imagine a number of men in chains and all condemned to death, where some are killed each day in the sight of the others, and those who remain see their own fate in that of their fellows and wait their turn, looking at each other sorrowfully and without hope. It is an image of the condition of man.
Nature has some perfections to show that she is the image of God, and some defects to show that she is only His image.
Excuse me, pray." Without that excuse I would not have known there was anything amiss.
Nothing is surer than that the people will be weak.
The stream is always purer at its source.
It is dangerous to tell the people that the laws are unjust; for they obey them only because they think them just. Therefore it isnecessary to tell them at the same time that they must obey them because they are laws, just as they must obey superiors, not because they are just, but because they are superiors. In this way all sedition is prevented.
Our achievements of today are but the sum total of our thoughts of yesterday.
It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.
There is no arena in which vanity displays itself under such a variety of forms as in conversation.
Orthodoxy on one side of the Pyrenees may be heresy on the other.
Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.
If there is a God, He is infinitely incomprehensible, since, having, neither parts nor limits, He has no affinity to us. We are then incapable of knowing either what He is or if He is. [So] you must wager. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is.
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.
Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.
Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.
Man is neither angel nor beast.
Justice is what is established; and thus all our established laws will necessarily be regarded as just without examination, since they are established.
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