In the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met.

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.

That which knows all things and is known by none is the subject.

This world could not have been the work of an all-loving being, but that of a devil, who had brought creatures into existence in order to delight in the sight of their sufferings.

A man of business will often deceive you without the slightest scruple, but he will absolutely refuse to commit a theft.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

Nothing shocks our moral feelings so deeply as cruelty does. We can forgive every other crime, but not cruelty. The reason for this is that it is the very opposite of compassion.