When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep; yes, and when I walk alone in a beautiful orchard, if my thoughts drift to far-off matters for some part of the time for some other part I lead them back again to the walk, the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, to myself.
The great and glorious masterpiece of man is to live with purpose.
All is a-swarm with commentaries: of authors there is a dearth.
Between ourselves, there are two things that I have always observed to be in singular accord: supercelestial thoughts and subterranean conduct.
I will follow the good side right to the fire, but not into it if I can help it.
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.
Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.
A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.
If others surpass you in knowledge, in charm, in strength, in fortune, you have other causes to blame for it; but if you yield tothem in stoutness of heart you have only yourself to blame.
We are all of us richer than we think we are; but we are taught to borrow and to beg, and brought up more to make use of what is another’s than of our own.
We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade.
Saying is one thing, doing another. We must consider the sermon and the preacher distinctly and apart.
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
Our great and glorious masterpiece is to live appropriately.
A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.
There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.
There is a certain amount of purpose, acquiescence, and satisfaction in nursing one’s melancholy.
Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one’s own goodness.
It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.