Through space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like an atom; through thought I comprehend the world.

When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant, and which knows me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than then?

When we encounter a natural style we are always surprised and delighted, for we thought to see an author and found a man

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.

Man's greatness lies in his power of thought.

The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.