“Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.”
Men“Men blaspheme what they do not know.”
Men“Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness.”
Men“The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.”
Alone“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
Men“Our soul is cast into a body, where it finds number, time, dimension. Thereupon it reasons, and calls this nature necessity, and can believe nothing else.”
Nature“Faith is different from proof the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.”
Faith“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.”
Nature“Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?”
Patriotism“All men's miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”
Alone“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.”
Nature“Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.”
Power“Men often take their imagination for their heart and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.”
Imagination“It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.”
Alone“To have no time for philosophy is to be a true philosopher.”
Time“Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.”
Faith“Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.”
God“Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true.”
Men“He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God's providence to lead him aright.”
God“Two things control men's nature, instinct and experience.”
Experience“In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.”
Future“We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.”
Faith