"There is, no doubt, a perfect analogy between the life of the human and that of the vegetable, both of the body and the mind."

"In fact, for solid happiness and peace, there are none more favored than those blessed with a master-passion and a monopolizing work."

"Who am I ? How did I get into the world ? Why was I not asked about it ?"

"The same book in the hand, the same pen between the fingers, the same conversation on the lips, and the same automobile instead of feet."

["Nourrir le corps, Nourrir l'esprit" / "Eloge de la lenteur" / "Philosophie, science et vie chez Giordano Bruno"]

"Only transcendence can make this questionable life good, the world beautiful, and existence itself a fulfilment."

"Living thus, year in and year out, .. remote from the nature that is outside them, and no less remote from the nature that is within."

"La philosophie, dont je crois utile et possible aux âmes passionnées d'adopter les secours, est de la nature la plus relevée."

"Old age is a stage in our lives, ... it has its own face, its own atmosphere and temperature, its own joys and needs."

"I offer this book to you not as a lorgnette to observe others but as a mirror to observe yourself."

"Le sort n'aimait pas Vauvenargues ; à moins qu'il ne lui préparât, par une vie toute pleine de misères, une plus éclatante revanche."

"If I could, I would choose every day another form, plant or animal, I would be all flowers one by one: weed, thistle, or rose..."

"Le monde ne m’a rien offert de tel qu’en descendant en moi-même je n’aie trouvé encore mieux chez moi."

"One wishes for laziness in wicked men and silence in fools."

"Il me fit de très belles distinctions, assurant toujours .. que ce monde-ci est le meilleur de tous les mondes réellement impossibles."

"Oh, dear friend, what a small amount of joy is mine and what a lot of my own smoke I have to consume !"

"When we are not alone when we are on our own, then we have achieved solitude."

“Success, peace, happiness, and distraction — pale before the question of whether or not one experiences this life as meaningful.”

"Reading can easily be nothing more than a way to kill time; but if it is calculated and intense, it is a steady extension of one's life."

"May the Dragon of Envy be far from us, and the Swan of Imprudence, the Cassiopeia of Vanity, the Andromeda of Laziness..."

"What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one."

"On ne voit pas impunément dans les ténèbres, on n'en recueille pas sans danger l'enseignement..."

"Mes insomnies, je leur dois le meilleur et le pire de moi-même."

"C’est de la douleur que naît toute beauté et toute grandeur d’âme, écrit Hölderlin."