It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.

Life is a language in which certain truths are conveyed to us; if we could learn them in some other way, we should not live.

The man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as if he were ascending; he only sees the earth sinking deeper below him.

Imagination is strong in a man when that particular function of the brain which enables him to observe is roused to activity without any necessary excitement of the sense. Accordingly, we find that imagination is active just in proportion as our sense are not excited by external objects. A long period of solitude, whether in prison or in a sick room; quiet, twilight, darkness-these are the things that promote its activity; and under their influence it comes into play of itself.

Man may have the most excellent judgment in all other matters, and yet go wrong in those which concern himself; because here the will comes in and deranges the intellect at once. Therefore let a man take counsel of a friend. A doctor can cure everyone but himself; if he falls ill, he sends for a colleague.

If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the miseries of boredom.

For the purpose of acquiring gain, everything else is pushed aside or thrown overboard, for example, as is philosophy by the professors of philosophy.