The virtue of a free man appears equally great in refusing to face difficulties as in overcoming them.

If we love something similar to ourselves, we endeavor, as far as we can, to bring it about that it should love us in return.

Will and intellect are one and the same thing.

Ambition is the immoderate desire for honor.

After experience had taught me that all the usual surroundings of social life are vain and futile; seeing that none of the objects of my fears contained in themselves anything either good or bad, except in so far as the mind is affected by them, I finally resolved to inquire whether there might be some real good having power to communicate itself, which would affect the mind singly, to the exclusion of all else: whether, in fact, there might be anything of which the discovery and attainment would enable me to enjoy continuous, supreme, and unending happiness.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

Desire is the essence of a man.