It is the courage to make a clean breast of it in the face of every question that makes the philosopher. He must be like Sophocles' Oedipus, who, seeking enlightenment concerning his terrible fate, pursues his indefatigable inquiry even though he divines that appalling horror awaits him in the answer. But most of us carry with us the Jocasta in our hearts, who begs Oedipus, for God's sake, not to inquire further.

Friends and acquaintances are the surest passport to fortune.

Our first ideas of life are generally taken from fiction rather than fact.

The present is the only reality and the only certainty.

To free a man from error is to give, not to take away. Knowledge that a thing is false is a truth. Error always does harm; sooner or later it will bring mischief to the man who harbors it.

All our wanting comes from needs, thus we continiously suffer. The intellect teaches free will, free from suffering.

What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.