72 quotes
Heat can evidently be a cause of motion only by virtue of the changes of volume or of form which it produces in bodies.
Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat (1824)
The driving power of heat is independent of the agents used to realize it; its value is uniquely fixed by the temperatures of the bodies between which the transfer of caloric is made.
Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat and on Machines Fitted to Develop Power (1824)
God cannot punish man for not believing when he could so easily have enlightened and convinced him.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
A religion suited to the soul and preached by men worthy of respect would exercise the most salutary influence upon society and customs.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
The truly wise man is he who loves virtue for its own sake.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
Men desire nothing so much as to make themselves envied.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
Do nothing that all the world may not know.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
One should never feign a character that he has not, or affect a character that he cannot sustain.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
It must be that all honest people are in the galleys; only knaves are to be met with elsewhere.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
The pleasures of self-love are the only ones that can really be turned into ridicule.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
Hope being the greatest of all blessings, it is necessary, in order to be happy, to sacrifice the present to the future.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
According to the doctrine of the church, God resembles a sphinx proposing enigmas, and devouring those who cannot guess them.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
The promptitude of resolutions most frequently accords with their justice.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
If human reason is incapable of discovering the mysteries of Divinity, why has not Divinity made human reason more clear-sighted?
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
The strain of suffering causes the mind to decay.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
Love is almost the only passion that the good man may avow. It is the only one which accords with delicacy.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
When discussion degenerates into dispute, be silent; this is not to declare yourself beaten.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
It may sometimes be necessary to yield the right, but how is one to recover it when wanted?
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
Plan in the morning the work of the day, and reflect in the evening on what has been done.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)
The more nearly an object approaches perfection, the more we notice its slightest defects.
Posthumous Manuscripts (1878)