I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what others say of them, 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.

What is a man in nature? Nothing in relation to the infinite, everything in relation to nothing, a mean between nothing and everything.

Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.