Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

The most powerful cause of error is the war existing between the senses and reason.

Eloquence is a painting of thought.

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. . . . We never seek things for themselves, but for the search.

It is not shameful for man to succumb under pain, and it is shameful for him to succumb under pleasure.

FIRE . God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers and scholars. Certainty. Certainty. Feeling. Joy. Peace.

Man is only a reed, the weakest thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.

‘God is or he is not.’ But to which side shall we incline? … Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate the two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that he is.

The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.