I made this [letter] very long, because I did not have the leisure to make it shorter.

La dernière chose qu'on trouve en faisant un ouvrage est de savoir celle qu'il faut mettre la première. (The last thing one settles in writing a book is what one should put in first.)

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter."

(Letter 16, 1657)

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.

Therefore, those to whom God has imparted religion by intuition are very fortunate and justly convinced. But to those who do not have it, we can give it only by reasoning, waiting for God to give them spiritual insight, without which faith is only hu