 Nothing is so firmly believed as what we least know. |
| A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them. |
| If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it. |
| It is an absolute and virtually divine perfection to know how to enjoy our being rightfully. |
| Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee. |
| There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves. |
| If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I. |
| There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees. |
| I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics. |
| The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere. |
| The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness. |
| If a man urge me to tell wherefore I loved him, I feel it cannot be expressed but by answering: Because it was he, because it was myself. |
| Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations. |
| Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think. |
| I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly. |
| Not being able to govern events, I govern myself. |
| I write to keep from going mad from the contradictions I find among mankind - and to work some of those contradictions out for myself. |
| Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly. |
| 'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures. |
| Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do. |
