Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed. |
Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed. |
Man is obviously made for thinking. Therein lies all his dignity and his merit; and his whole duty is to think as he ought. |
Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature; but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows nothing of this. |
Man's greatness lies in his power of thought. |
Mathematicians, who are only mathematicians, have exact minds, provided all things are explained to them by means of definitions and axioms; otherwise they are inaccurate and insufferable, for they are only right when the principles are quite clear |
Men are so necessarily mad, that not to be mad would amount to another form of madness. |
Men blaspheme what they do not know. |
Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. |
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction |
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. |
Men never do evil so fully and cheerfully as when we do it out of conscience. |
Most of the evils of life arise from man's being unable to sit still in a room. |
Mutual cheating is the foundation of society. |
Nature confuses the skeptics and reason confutes the dogmatists |