12  Order. Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for     this is first to show that religion is not contrary to reason, but worthy of reverence and respect.
Next make it attractive, make good men wish it were true, and then show that it is.
Worthy of reverence because it really understands human nature.
Attractive because it promises true good.

45  Man is nothing but a subject full of natural error that cannot be eradicated except through grace. Nothing shows him the truth, everything deceives him. The two principles of truth, reason and senses, are not only both not genuine, but are engaged in mutual deception. The senses deceive reason through false appearances, and, just as they trick the soul, they are tricked by it in their turn; it takes its revenge….

47 We never keep to the present. We recall the past; we anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight.  We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us, and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is.  The fact is that the present usually hurts. We thrust it out of sight because it distresses us, and if we find it enjoyable, we are sorry to see it slip away….Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.

110  We know the truth not only through our reason but also through our heart.  It is through the latter that we know first principles, and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to refute them.  The skeptics have no other object than that, and they work at it to no purpose.  We know that we are not dreaming, but, however unable we may be to prove it rationally, our inability proves nothing but the weakness of our reason, and not the uncertainty of all our knowledge, as they  maintain….

114  Man's greatness comes from knowing he is wretched: a tree does not know it is wretched.  Thus it is wretched to know that one is wretched, but there is greatness in knowing one is wretched.

116  All these examples of wretchedness prove his greatness. It is the wretchedness of a great lord, the wretchedness of a dispossessed king.
 

133  Diversion.  Being unable to cure death, wretchedness and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.

136  ...What people want is not the easy peaceful life that allows us to think of our unhappy condition…but the agitation that takes our minds off it and diverts us. That is why we prefer the hunt to the capture.  That is why men are fond of the hustle and bustle; that is why prison is such a fearful punishment; that is why the pleasures of solitude are so incomprehensible….The hare itself would not save us from thinking about death and the miseries distracting us, but hunting it does so….

188  Reason's last step is the recognition that there are an infinite number of things which are beyond it.  It is merely feeble if it does not go as far as to realize that.  If natural things are beyond it, what are we to say about supernatural things?

190  The metaphysical proofs for the existence of God are so remote from human reasoning and so involved that they make little impact, and, even if they did help some people, it would only be for the moment during which they watched the demonstration, because an hour later they would be afraid they had made a mistake….

192  Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair.  Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.

418  ….If there is a God, he is infinitely beyond our comprehension, since, being indivisible and without limits, he bears no relation to us.  We are therefore incapable of knowing either what he is or whether he is.  That being so, who would dare to attempt an answer to the question?  Certainly not we, who bear no relation to him.
Who then will condemn Christians for being unable to give rational grounds for their beliefs, professing as they do a religion for which they cannot give rational grounds?….It is by being without proof that they show they are not without sense. “Yes, but although that excuses those who offer their religion as such, and absolves them from the criticism of producing it without rational grounds, it does not absolve those who accept it.”  Let us then examine this point, and let us say: “Either God is or he is not.”  But to which view shall we be inclined?  Reason cannot decide this question.  Infinite chaos separates us.  At the far end of this infinite distance a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tails.  How will you wager?  Reason cannot make you choose either, reason cannot prove either wrong.
Do not then condemn as wrong those who have made a choice, for you know nothing about it. “No, but I will condemn them not for having made this particular choice, but any choice, for, although the one who calls heads and the other one are equally at fault, the fact is that they are both at fault: the right thing is not to wager at all.”

  Yes, but you must wager.  There is no choice, you are already committed. Which will you choose then?  Let us see: since a choice must be made, let us see which offers you the least interest.  You have two things to lose: the true and the good; and two things at stake: your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to avoid: error and wretchedness.  Since you must necessarily choose, your reason is no more affronted by choosing one rather than the other.  That is one point cleared up.  But your happiness?  Let us weigh up the gain and the loss involved in calling heads that God exists.  Let us assess the two cases: if you win you win everything, if you lose you lose nothing.  Do not hesitate then; wager that he does exist….Since you are obliged to play, you must be renouncing reason if you hoard your life rather than risk it for an infinite gain, just as likely to occur as a loss amounting to nothing….

423  The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways….
 

424  It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason.  That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.

446 If there were no obscurity man would not feel his corruption: if there were no light man could not hope for cure.  Thus it is not only right but useful for us that God should be partly concealed and partly revealed, since it is equally dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness as to know his wretchedness without knowing God.

449….What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence, nor the manifest presence of divinity, but the presence of a hidden God.  Everything bears this stamp….

471  For my part, I confess that as soon as the Christian religion reveals the principle that men are by nature corrupt and have fallen away from God, this opens one's eyes so that the mark of this truth is everywhere apparent: for nature is such that it points at every turn to a God who has been lost, both within man and without, and to the corruption of nature.