We attack not only to hurt someone, to defeat him, but perhaps also simply to become conscious of our own strength.

The thousand mysteries around us would not trouble but interest us, if only we had cheerful, healthy hearts.

Just as bones, tissues, intestines, and blood vessels are enclosed in a skin that makes it possible to bear the sight of a human being, so the agitations and passions of the soul are wrapped up in vanity: it is the soul's skin.

Solitude makes us tougher towards ourselves and tenderer towards others. In both ways it improves our character.

One who dresses in rags that have been washed clean dresses cleanly to be sure, but raggedly nonetheless.

One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.

I want to know whether you are a person devoted to creating or to exchanging in some respect or other: as a creator you belong tothe free, as an exchanger you are their slave and instrument.