The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
Why is my knowledge limited? Why my stature? Why my life to one hundred years rather than to a thousand? What reason has nature had for giving me such, and for choosing this number rather than another in the infinity of those from which there is no more reason to choose one than another, trying nothing else?
Art thou less a slave by being loved and favoured by thy master? Thou art indeed well off, slave. Thy master favours thee; he will soon beat thee.
The last act is tragic, however happy all the rest of the play is; at the last a little earth is thrown upon our head, and that is the end for ever.
We are fools to depend upon the society of our fellow-men. Wretched as we are, powerless as we are, they will not aid us; we shall die alone. We should therefore act as if we were alone, and in that case should we build fine houses, etc.? We should seek the truth without hesitation; and, if we refuse it, we show that we value the esteem of men more than the search for truth.
_Instability._[89]--It is a horrible thing to feel all that we possess slipping away.
Between us and heaven or hell there is only life, which is the frailest thing in the world.
_Injustice._--That presumption should be joined to meanness is extreme injustice.
To fear death without danger, and not in danger, for one must be a man.
Sudden death alone is feared; hence confessors stay with lords.
An heir finds the title-deeds of his house. Will he say, "Perhaps they are forged?" and neglect to examine them?
_Dungeon._--I approve of not examining the opinion of Copernicus; but this...! It concerns all our life to know whether the soul be mortal or immortal.
It is certain that the mortality or immortality of the soul must make an entire difference to morality. And yet philosophers have constructed their ethics independently of this: they discuss to pass an hour.
The fallacy of philosophers who have not discussed the immortality of the soul. The fallacy of their dilemma in Montaigne.
Atheists ought to say what is perfectly evident; now it is not perfectly evident that the soul is material.
_Atheists._--What reason have they for saying that we cannot rise from the dead? What is more difficult, to be born or to rise again; that what has never been should be, or that what has been should be again? Is it more difficult to come into existence than to return to it? Habit makes the one appear easy to us; want of habit makes the other impossible. A popular way of thinking!