A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people.

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.

Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are, by their very nature, highly uncertain, precarious, ephemeral and subject to chance.

A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles, for then he is off his guard.

A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man

In reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another's thoughts.

What people commonly call fate is mostly their own stupidity.