“Man's sensitivity to the little things and insensitivity to the greatest are the signs of a strange disorder.”

“Man's sensitivity to little things and insensitivity to the greatest things are marks of a strange disorder.”

“Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”

“Little things comfort us because little things distress us.”

“The greatest and most important thing in the world is founded on weakness. This is a remarkably sure foundation, for nothing is surer than that the people will be weak.”

“Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth.”

“What then is to become of man? Will he be the equal of god or the beasts? What a terrifying distance! What then shall he be? Who cannot see from all this that man is lost, that he has fallen from his place, that he anxiously seeks it, and cannot find it again? And who then is to direct him there? The greatest men have failed.”