Jesus was in a garden, not of delight as the first Adam, in which he destroyed himself and the whole human race, but in one of agony, in which he saved himself and the whole human race.
A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.
Imagination is the deceptive part in man, the mistress of error and falsehood.
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.
Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.
When I see the blind and wretched state of men, when I survey the whole universe in its deadness, and man left to himself with no light, as though lost in this corner of the universe without knowing who put him there, what he has to do, or what will become of him when he dies, incapable of knowing anything, I am moved to terror, like a man transported in his sleep to some terrifying desert island, who wakes up quite lost, with no means of escape. Then I marvel that so wretched a state does not drive people to despair.
The state of man is inconstancy, ennui, anxiety.
The secrets of nature are concealed; her agency is perpetual, but we do not always discover its effects; time reveals them from age to age; and although she is always the same in herself, she is not always equally well known.
There are two equally dangerous extremes-to shut reason out, and to let nothing else in.
When we would show any one that he is mistaken, our best course is to observe on what side he considers the subject,--for his view of if is generally right on this side,--and admit to him that he is right so far. He will be satisfied with this acknowledgment, that he was not wrong in his judgment, but only inadvertent in not looking at the whole case.
Nothing fortifies scepticism more than that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.
If there were only one religion, God would indeed be manifest.
If a man loves a woman for her beauty, does he love her? No; for the smallpox, which destroys her beauty without killing her, causes his love to cease. And if any one loves me for my judgment or my memory, does he really love me? No; for I can lose these qualities without ceasing to be.
How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!
Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree.
Anyone who found the secret of rejoicing when things go well without being annoyed when they go badly would have found the point.
Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without passion, without business, without entertainment, without care. It is then that he recognizes that he is empty, insufficient, dependent, ineffectual. From the depths of his soul now comes at once boredom, gloom, sorrow, chagrin, resentment and despair.
The sum of a man's problems come from his inability to be alone in a silent room.
Death itself is less painful when it comes upon us unawares than the bare contemplation of it, even when danger is far distant.
(Man,) the glory and the scandal of the universe.
If it is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are, it is a terrible one to live an evil life, while believing in God
It is dangerous to explain too clearly to man how like he is to the animals without pointing out his greatness. It is also dangerous to make too much of his greatness without his vileness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in ignorance of both, but it is most valuable to represent both to him. Man must not be allowed to believe that he is equal either to animals or to angels, nor to be unaware of either, but he must know both.
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.
It is the contest that delights us, and not the victory.
Let man reawake and consider what he is compared with the reality of things; regard himself lost in this remote corner of Nature; and from the tiny cell where he lodges, to wit the Universe, weigh at their true worth earth, kingdoms, towns, himself. What is a man face to face with infinity?
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