If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

What is man in nature? Nothing in relation to the infinite, all in relation to nothing, a mean between nothing and everything

Thus so wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him.