They would find that in the composition or texture of his works Aristotle himself lacked logic, although he invented that art. That art, I say, which directs but serves to create nothing, and which, like all the others, must never show itself except when it operates upon itself. For one must not leave the rule in the work, the compass in the circle, the level in the wall. But one visibly [uses] the level, the rule and the compass as a standard to make another rule, another compass, another level.

Of books that intoxicate and bring into the head only disorderly movements.

Montesquieu. From this mind continually come sparks that dazzle, that delight, that even warm, but that give little light. It is a mind full of bewitchments, and it blinds its readers with them. It is a bewitching mind.

Descartes. This is a great mind that does not have a great and beautiful doctrine.

April 2.

When M-r-Ch- speaks, he always looks into his memory and never into his soul or into his heart or into the world.

Of those who, instead of looking into God, into their soul or to the depths of things, always look into their head when they make some speech or form some judgment. One recognizes this act and habit of their mind by the countenance they assume, by the direction of their eyes.

We shall be able to say: “I am glad to die wrapped in [these] times” as in a white shroud.

A strong head is nothing if it is not a well-made head.

April […].

As one grows old, one loves order and arrangement (around oneself): [the latter] as a means of convenience, as an aid to [memory], as sparing effort and making recollection easier.

April 13.

There is naturally in man a spirit of quibbling and subtlety that spent itself in those school disputations. Society was spared it.

April 15.

Familiarity without goodness! Even without goodness, it pleases. With goodness, it enchants.

Bourgeois, bourgeois life. The true bourgeois is by character a peaceful and idle possessor of what he has; always content with himself, easily content with others.