There is one respect in which beasts show real wisdom... their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.

It takes place, by and large, with the same sort of necessity as a tree brings forth fruit, and demands of the world no more than a soil on which the individual can flourish.

A book can never be anything more than the impression of its author’s thoughts. The value of these thoughts lies either in the matter about which he has thought, or in the form in which he develops his matter — that is to say, what he has thought about it.

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

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

Life is neither to be wept over nor to be laughed at but to be understood.

We must set limits to our wishes, curb our desires, moderate our anger, always remembering that an individual can attain only an infinitesimal share in anything that is worth having; and that on the other hand, everyone must incur many of the ills of life