Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We find our energies are actually cramped when we are overanxious to succeed.
Take care that old age does not wrinkle your spirit even more than your face.
Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
There is no passion so much transports the sincerity of judgment as doth anger
Other people do not see you at all, but guess at you by uncertain conjectures.
Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul; you must also toughen up his muscles.
Nature is a gentle guide, but not more sweet and gentle than prudent and just.
The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.
'Tis the sharpness of our mind that gives the edge to our pains and pleasures.
As for extraordinary things, all the provision in the world would not suffice.
I seek in the reading of books, only to please myself, by an honest diversion.
The reverse side of truth has a hundred thousand shapes and no defined limits.
I determine nothing; I do not comprehend things; I suspend judgment; I examine.
When we see a man with bad shoes, we say it is no wonder, if he is a shoemaker.
This notion [skepticism] is more clearly understood by asking "What do I know?"
Nature has, herself, I fear, imprinted in man a kind of instinct to inhumanity.
Praise is always pleasing, let it come from whom, or upon what account it will.
The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods.
Pride dwells in the thought; the tongue can have but a very little share in it.
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.
There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other
Unless a man feels he has a good enough memory, he should never venture to lie.
Experience teaches that a strong memory is generally joined to a weak judgment.
Nobody is exempt from saying stupid things, the harm is to do it presumptuously.
Virtue can have naught to do with ease. . . . It craves a steep and thorny path.
Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.
Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest
The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.
It is an absolute perfection... to get the very most out of one's individuality.
The archer who overshoots his mark does no better than he who falls short of it.
There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom.
Lucius Arruntius killed himself, he said, to escape both the future and the past.
Whom conscience, ne'er asleep, Wounds with incessant strokes, not loud, but deep.
Man is certainly crazy. He could not make a mite, and he makes gods by the dozen.
We are more unhappy to see people ahead of us than happy to see people behind us.
All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.
And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.
Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.
In general I ask for books that make use of learning, not those that build it up.
It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.
Report followeth not all goodness, except difficulty and rarity be joined thereto.
We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.
For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts.
The sage says that all that is under heaven incurs the same law and the same fate.
We are nearer neighbours to ourselves than whiteness to snow, or weight to stones.
Men ... are not agreed about any one thing, not even that heaven is over our heads.
He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.
Glory and repose are things that cannot possibly inhabit in one and the same place.
There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves.