"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 heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing"
"The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched"
"The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men"
"The gospel to me is simply irresistible"
"The finite is annihilated in the presence of the infinite, and becomes a pure nothing. So our spirit before God, so our justice before divine justice"
"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me"
"The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy"
"The charm of fame is so great that we like every object to which it is attached, even death"
"That we must love one God only is a thing so evident that it does not require miracles to prove it"
"Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth"
"Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong"
"Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed"
"Words differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects"
"When we see a natural style, we are astonished and charmed; for we expected to see an author, and we find a person"
"All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone"
"All human evil comes from a single cause, man's inability to sit still in a room"
"A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us"
"Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them"
"Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?"
"Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world"
"Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists"
"Atheism shows strength of mind, but only to a certain degree"
"As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all"
"If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world"
"People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others"
"If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future"
"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed"
"The strength of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts"
"Evil is easy, and has infinite forms"
"Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them"
"Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts"
"Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason"
"Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself"
"Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary"
"Custom is our nature. What are our natural principles but principles of custom?"
"Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same"
"The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter"
"The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever"
"I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world"
"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it"
"The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion"
"Love has reasons which reason cannot understand"
"If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists"
