"I, who have so much and so universally adored this [greek], "excellent mediocrity," 32 of ancient times, and who have concluded the most moderate measure the most perfect, shall I pretend to an unreasonable and prodigious old age?"

"A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband."

"A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can"

"Age imprints more wrinkles in the mind than it does on the face."

"Ambition is not a vice of little people."

"An untempted woman cannot boast of her chastity."

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

"Courtesy is a science of the highest importance. It is, like grace and beauty in the body, which charm at first sight, and lead on to further intimacy and friendship, opening a door that we may derive instruction from the example of others, and at the same time enabling us to benefit them by our example, if there be anything in our character worthy of imitation."

"Covetousness is both the beginning and the end of the devil's alphabet— the first vice in corrupt nature that moves, and the last which dies."

"Death, they say, acquits us of all obligations."

"Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved."

"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."

"Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows."

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

"Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky."

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

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

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

"He who is not sure of his memory, should not undertake the trade of lying."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

"In plain truth, lying is an accursed vice. We are not men, nor have any other tie upon another, but by our word."

"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."

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

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

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

"It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity."

"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."

"Love to his soul gave eyes; he knew things are not as they seem. The dream is his real life; the world around him is the dream."

"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."

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

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

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

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

"No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port."

"Not being able to govern events, I govern myself."

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

"Observe, observe perpetually."

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

"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."

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

"So it is with minds. Unless you keep them busy with some definite subject that will bridle and control them, they throw themselves in disorder hither and yon in the vague field of imagination. ..And there is no mad or idle fancy that they do no bring forth in the agitation."

"Book I, Ch. 8"