All the excesses, all the violence, and all the vanity of great men, come from the fact that they know not what they are: it being difficult for thos… - Blaise Pascal

There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature... and the thing which pleases us.

[80] Respect means; put yourself out. That may look pointless, but it is quite right, because it amounts to saying: I should certainly put myself out if you needed it, because I do so when you do not; besides, respect serves to distinguish the great. If respect meant sitting in an armchair we should be showing everyone respect and then there would be no way of marking distinction, but we make the distinction quite clear by putting ourselves out.

What a Chimera is man! What a novelty, a monster, a chaos, a contradiction, a prodigy! Judge of all things, an imbecile worm; depository of truth, and sewer of error and doubt; the glory and refuse of the universe.