When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.
Oh, what a valiant faculty is hope.
We have power over nothing except our will.
Who does not in some sort live to others, does not live much to himself.
We are all of us richer than we think we are.
There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other.
Intoxication is calculated to put heart into the elderly and give them delight in dancing.
Wine is the benevolent god, who gives back gaiety to men and restores youth to the old.
Man is the sole animal whose nudities offend his own companions, and the only one who, in his natural actions, withdraws and hides himself from his own kind.
Intelligence is required to be able to know that a man knows not.
The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.
Meditation is a powerful and full study as can effectually taste and employ themselves.
Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul; you must also toughen up his muscles.
For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.
If falsehood, like truth, had but one face, we would be more on equal terms. For we would consider the contrary of what the liar said to be certain. But the opposite of truth has a hundred thousand faces and an infinite field.
Only he can judge of matters great and high whose soul is likewise.
Learning must not only lodge with us: we must marry her.
We judge a horse not only by its pace on a racecourse, but also by its walk, nay, when resting in its stable.
It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one.
It takes so much to be a king that he exists only as such. That extraneous glare that surrounds him hides him and conceals him from us; our sight breaks and is dissipated by it being filled and arrested by this strong light.