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YEAR 1800
January 2.
To tear out? no, but to lift from the soil.
January 4.
How through memory one is one; that without it there is no longer a self, or at least a continuous self, no past, no future, nothing but a numerical and mathematical present that admits neither addition nor division.
January 6.
Vigil and fast. That is to say, one kept watch on the night that followed the day of fasting.
Idea. It is often the inexpressible image of a thing that is invisible, or the innate notion of some unknown relation.
Dupuis. Throughout his book this man is an angry, furious scholar. And so he most often belies and contradicts himself, like hotheaded men who lose their temper.
From what superstitions Christianity delivered the world!
The ancients praised music because (they said) it takes away passions (at least earthly ones). We praise it only because it gives them.
The true philosopher is one who does not confine himself to being one, but who [is] equally fitted to fall in love with solid truths and uncertain truths.
“Who will dare tell the human mind (they cry), you shall advance this far and go no farther?” One may answer them: History. The history of every country, every age, all men, and above all the study of the books men have made in different places, at different times. Nature has given the mind, as it has the human body, its measure in strength and wisdom, in littleness and greatness.
— If one does not take care to strengthen faith within oneself through the credulity of others.
Almost all men naturally feel horror toward religions that are not their own.
January 10.
Repose of mind. This is what every reader seeks in a book; this is what every author must hasten to give him.