“is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or more proud than man."Nat. Hist., ii. 7.]”

“there is nothing we can do longer than think, no activity to which we can devote ourselves more regularly nor more easily:”

“If others were to look attentively into themselves as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of emptiness and tomfoolery. I cannot rid myself of them without getting rid of myself. We are all steeped in them, each as much as the other; but those who realize this get off, as I know, a little more cheaply.

“an outstanding memory is often associated with weak judgement.”

“they judge my affection by my memory and turn a natural defect into a deliberate one. ‘We begged him to do this,’ they say, ‘and he has forgotten.’ ‘He has forgotten his promise.’ ‘He has forgotten his friends.’ ‘He never remembered – even for my sake – to say this, to do that or not to mention something else.”

“For in truth habit is a violent and treacherous schoolmistress. She establishes in us, little by little, stealthily, the foothold of her authority; but having by this mild and humble beginning settled and planted it with the help of time, she soon uncovers to us a furious and tyrannical face against which we no longer have the liberty of even raising our eyes.”

“graces were never yet given to any one man."A verse”

“…what privilege this filthy excrement had, that we must carry about us a fine handkerchief to receive it, and, which was more, afterward to lap it carefully up and carry it all day about in our pockets, which, he said, could not but be much more nauseous and offensive, than to see it thrown away, as we did all other evacuations” – A gentleman”

“Man is indeed an object miraculously vain, various and wavering. It is difficult to found a judgement on him which is steady and uniform.”

“I seek only the learning that treats of the knowledge of myself and instructs me how to die well and live well.”

“I speak the truth not so much as I want, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.”

“Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the mind as the wish to forget it.”

“Atheism being a proposition as unnatural as monstrous, difficult also and hard to establish in the human understanding, how arrogant soever, there are men enough seen, out of vanity and pride, to be the authors of extraordinary and reforming opinions, and outwardly to affect the profession of them; who, if they are such fools, have, nevertheless, not the power to plant them in their own conscience.”

“I...think it much more supportable to be always alone, than never to be so.”

“If I can, I will prevent my death from saying anything not first said by my life.”

“To hear men talk of metonomies, metaphors, and allegories, and other grammar words, would not one think they signified some rare and exotic form of speaking? And yet they are phrases that come near to the babble of my chambermaid. And”

“The other two are rich and noble; examples of virtue rarely make their home among people like that.”

“Most of Aesop’s fables have many different levels and meanings. There are those who make myths of them by choosing some feature that fits in well with the fable. But for most of the fables this is only the first and most superficial aspect. There are others that are more vital, more essential and profound, that they have not been able to reach.”

“That father may truly be said miserable that holdeth the affection of his children tied unto him by no other means than by the need they have of his help or want of his assistance,”

“of countering it if that had been the only factor, since all non-rational inborn tendencies are a kind of disease which ought to be fought against.”

“I would rather let affairs break their neck than twist my faith for the sake of them.”

“It is quite normal to see good intentions, when not carried out with moderation, urging men to actions which are truly vicious.”

“the property of Man’s wit to act readily and quickly, while the property of the judgement is to be slow and poised.”

“To die of age is a rare, singular, and extraordinary death,”

“have seen no other effects in rods but to make children’s minds more remiss or more maliciously headstrong.”

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to live to yourself.”

“No passion disturbs the soundness of our judgement as anger does.”

“Most of our desires are born and nurtured at other people's expense.”

“If the original essence of the thing which we fear could confidently lodge itself within us by its own authority it would be the same in all men. For all men are of the same species and, in varying degrees, are all furnished with the same conceptual tools and instruments of judgement.”

“In marriage, alliances and money rightly weigh at least as much as attractiveness and beauty.”

“I had rather my son should learn in a tan-house to speak, than in the schools to prate.”

“So much din from so many philosophical brainboxes! Trust in your philosophy now! Boast that you are the one who has found the lucky bean in your festive pudding!”

“That philosopher who orders us to conceal ourselves and to care for no one but ourselves and who wishes us to remain unknown to others, wants us even less to be held in honour and glory by them. He also advised Idomeneus in no wise to govern his actions by reputation or by common opinion, except to avoid such incidental disadvantages as the contempt of men might bring him.10 Those words are infinitely true, in my opinion, and are reasonable.”

“All of the days go toward death and the last one arrives there.”

“No one suffers long, save by his own fault. If a man has no heart for either living or dying; if he has no will either to resist or to run away: what are we to do with him?”

“One may be humble out of pride.”

“Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.”

“I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.”

“how I would hate the reputation of being clever at writing but stupid and useless at everything else! I would rather be stupid at both than to choose to employ my good qualities as badly as that.”

“Philosophy believes she has not made a bad use of her resources when she has bestowed on Reason sovereign mastery over our soul and authority to bridle our appetites.”

“I have a mind that belongs wholly to itself, and is accustomed to go its own way. Having never until this hour had a master or governor imposed on me, I have advanced as far as I pleased, and at my own pace. This has made me slack and unfit for the service of others; it has made me useless to any but myself.”

“Happy are they who can please and delight their senses with things insensate—and who can live off their death.”

“You should study more to understand that you know little.”

“When a man is commonplace in discussion yet valued for what he writes that shows that his talents lie in his borrowed sources not in himself.”

“there is nothing in the whole world madder than bringing matters down to the measure of our own capacities and potentialities. How”

“It is fear that I am most afraid of.”

“Assaulted as I am by ambition, covetousness, rashness and superstition, and having such enemies to life as that within me, should I start wondering about the motions of the Universe?”

“The more simply we entrust ourself to Nature the more wisely we do so. Oh what a soft and delightful pillow, and what a sane one on which to rest a well-schooled head, are ignorance and unconcern.”

“If it lay in my power to make myself feared, I had rather make myself beloved.”

“The majority of our polities, as Aristotle says, are like the Cyclops, abandoning the guidance of the women and children to each individual man according to his mad and injudicious ideas: hardly any, except the polities of Sparta and of Crete, have entrusted the education of children to their laws.”