Massillon’s sermons. Their plan is paltry, but their bas-reliefs are superb.

February 5.

“The altar before the throne.” Mr. L-b-z + is right.

February 6.

Madmen, and even raving madmen, reason very well.

February 7.

Fear belongs to the imagination, cowardice to character.

February 10.

Good taste is necessary to half of morality, for it governs proprieties.

February 12.

To ask for an ancient authority for each new opinion.

February 14.

Plato. That spirit of poetry which animates the languors of his dialectic. He loses himself in the void; but one sees the play of his wings, one hears their sound. These wings are lacking in his imitators.

In Linguet’s histories; one sees in them only the residue or the corpse of events and actions.

February 17.

— more apt to believe divine things.

February […]9.

Sovereignty. Religion. The weight of these great questions crushes [the] human head. Or, if it sometimes proves equal to them, they produce in [it] an immoderate expansion that makes people senseless on [many] points. — One must treat such lofty matters by way of authority and not by one’s own judgment, if one wishes to preserve one’s wisdom.

Remorse sanctifies vice.

February 20.

To be born and to be unborn. Indeed the soul detaches itself from the body, as the child from the woman who contains it, when certain bonds are broken.