A person is bound to lose when he talks about himself; if he belittles himself, he is believed; if he praises himself, he isn’t believed.
Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.
Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into.
My reason is not framed to bend or stoop: my knees are.
I do not teach. I relate.
I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.
Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society.
Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark.
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
Obstinacy and dogmatism are the surest signs of stupidity. Is there anything more confident, resolute, disdainful, grave and serious than an ass?
It is not without good reason, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.
No man is so exquisitely honest or upright in living, but that ten times in his life he might not lawfully be hanged.
Cowardice is the mother of cruelty.
The strength of any plan depends on the time. Circumstances and things eternally shift and change.
The bitterness of the potion, and the abhorrence of the patient are necessary circumstances to the operation. It must be something to trouble and disturb the stomach that must purge and cure it.
All other knowledge is hurtful to him who has not honesty and good-nature.
We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade; our life, like the harmony of the world, is composed of contrary things, and one part is no less necessary than the other.
It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness.
Things seem greater by imagination than they are in effect.
I set forth a humble and inglorious life; that does not matter. You can tie up all moral philosophy with a common and private life just as well as with a life of richer stuff. Each man bears the entire form of man’s estate.