Too much pleasure disagrees with us. Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts.

Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness.

To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher.

Philosophers.—We are full of things which take us out of ourselves.

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

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.

When the passions become masters, they are vices.

How vain painting is—we admire the realistic depiction of objects which in their original state we don’t admire at all.

It is right that what is just should be obeyed; it is necessary that what is strongest should be obeyed.

Those honour Nature well, who teach that she can speak on everything, even on theology.