In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page-boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk- they are all part of the curriculum.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

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.

The value of life lies not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them... Whether you find satisfaction in life depends not on your tale of years, but on your will.

Make your educational laws strict and your criminal ones can be gentle; but if you leave youth its liberty you will have to dig dungeons for ages.

The art of dining well is no slight art, the pleasure not a slight pleasure.

It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others.

Nothing prints more lively in our minds than something we wish to forget.

I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.

The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.

The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.

It is not death, it is dying that alarms me.

Observe, observe perpetually.

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.

Marriage, a market which has nothing free but the entrance.

Hath God obliged himself not to exceed the bounds of our knowledge?

The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all this is but One.

It is the mind that maketh good or ill, That maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity. Variants: It should be noted that the games of children are not games, and must be considered as their most serious actions. For truly it is to be noted, that children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.

No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.

He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.

The most profound joy has more of gravity than of gaiety in it.

Labour not after riches first, and think thou afterwards wilt enjoy them. He who neglecteth the present moment, throweth away all that he hath. As the arrow passeth through the heart, while the warrior knew not that it was coming; so shall his life be taken away before he knoweth that he hath it.

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.

Habit is a second nature.

Ambition is not a vice of little people.

The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.

For truth itself has not the privilege to be spoken at all times and in all sorts.

And to bring in a new word by the head and shoulders, they leave out the old one.

Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behavior, attire, grace, learning and all their words azimuth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.

We seek and offer ourselves to be gulled.

An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity.

Not because Socrates said so,... I look upon all men as my compatriots.

The diversity of physical arguments and opinions embraces all sorts of methods.

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

Confidence in another man's virtue is no light evidence of a man's own, and God willingly favors such a confidence.

My appetite comes to me while eating.

I have ever loved to repose myself, whether sitting or lying, with my heels as high or higher than my head.

T is so much to be a king, that he only is so by being so. The strange lustre that surrounds him conceals and shrouds him from us; our sight is there broken and dissipated, being stopped and filled by the prevailing light.