"Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth."

"By space the universe encompasses me and swallows me up like an atom; by thought I comprehend the world."

"Those honor nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything."

"Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death."

"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."

"Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."

"Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it."

"Since we cannot know all there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything."

"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know."

"We must keep our thought secret, and judge everything by it, while talking like the people."

"Men seek rest in a struggle against difficulties; and when they have conquered these, rest becomes insufferable."

"There is enough light for those who only desire to see, and enough obscurity for those who have a contrary disposition"

"There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature... and the thing which pleases us."

"Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care."

"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me"

"God instituted prayer to communicate to creatures the dignity of causality."

"The last act is bloody, however fine the rest of the play"

"Passion cannot be beautiful without excess; one either loves too much or not enough."

"In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't."

"Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently arranged have different effects."

"Man's sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest things are marks of a strange disorder."

"Man's grandeur is that he knows himself to be miserable."

"Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much"

"The power of a man's virtue should not be measured by his special efforts, but by his ordinary doing."

"The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter."

"He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright"

"No religion except ours has taught that man is born in sin; none of the philosophical sects has admitted it; none therefore has spoken the truth"

"We run carelessly over the precipice after having put something in front of us to prevent us seeing it."

"When a soldier complains of his hard life (or a labourer, etc.) try giving him nothing to do."

"If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exsists."

"Please forgive the long letter; I didn’t have time to write a short one."

"A trifle consoles us, for a trifle distresses us."

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of."

"We know the truth, not only be the reason, but also be the heart."

"We make an idol of truth itself, for truth apart from charity is not God, but his image and an idol that we must not love or worship."

"Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions."

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed."

"Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless."

"If he exalts himself, I humble him. If he humbles himself, I exalt him. And I go on contradicting him Until he understands That he is a monster that passes all understanding."

"All human evil comes from a single cause, man’s inability to sit still in a room."

"Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts."

"To make a man a saint, it must indeed be by grace; and whoever doubts this does not know what a saint is, or a man."

"Fire. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and the scholars. I will not forget thy word. Amen."

"Happiness can be found neither in ourselves nor in external things, but in God and in ourselves as united to him."

"They do not know that they seek only the chase and not the quarry."

"Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is."

"Jesus is a God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair."

"We desire truth and find within ourselves only uncertainty."

"It is better to know something about everything then everything about something"

"Imagination magnifies small objects with fantastic exaggeration until they fill our soul, and with bold insolence cuts down great things to its own size, as when speaking of God."