In many cases hate a person is rooted in the involuntary estimate of its virtues.

All religions promise a reward beyond life, in eternity, for excellences of the will or heart, but none for excellences of the head or understanding.

I've never known any trouble than an hour's reading didn't assuage.

Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts.

Still, instead of trusting what their own minds tell them, men have as a rule a weakness for trusting others who pretend to supernatural sources of knowledge.

The highest, most varied and lasting pleasures are those of the mind.

In youth it is the outward aspect of things that most engages us; while in age, thought or reflection is the predominating qualityof the mind. Hence, youth is the time for poetry, and age is more inclined to philosophy. In practical affairs it is the same: a man shapes his resolutions in youth more by the impression that the outward world makes upon him; whereas, when he is old, it is thought that determines his actions.