The happiness which we receive from ourselves is greater than that which we obtain from our surroundings. . . . The world in which a person lives shapes itself chiefly by the way in which he or she looks at it.

What now on the other hand makes people sociable is their incapacity to endure solitude and thus themselves.

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.

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

To desire immortality is to desire the eternal perpetuation of a great mistake

The general history of art and literature shows that the highest achievements of the human mind are, as a rule, not favourably received at first.

To free a person from error is to give, and not to take away.