“We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine.”

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don't speak well of yourself.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter.

The strength of a man's virtue must not be measured by his efforts, but by his ordinary life.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

We never live, but we hope to live; and as we are always arranging to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

The heart has its reasons which reason knows not.