All Quotes

"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"

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

"The strangest, most generous, and proudest of all virtues is true courage."

"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."

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

"The world is all a carcass and vanity, The shadow of a shadow, a play And in one word, just nothing."

"The world is but a perpetual see-saw."

"The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them."

"There is a plague on Man, the opinion that he knows something."

"There is a sort of gratification in doing good which makes us rejoice in ourselves."

"There is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom."

"[S}i sapias, sapias : habeus quod di dant boni."

"Like rowers, who advance backward."

"Un peu de chaque chose, et rien du tout, a la française."