What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction.

Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!

What else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale's part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work. I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I ask you to join me in this same song.

Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress.

No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

To be getting an education means this: to be learning what is your own, and what is not your own.

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.