If nature be regarded as the teacher and we poor human beings as her pupils, the human race presents a very curious picture. We all sit together at a lecture and possess the necessary principles for understanding it, yet we always pay more attention to the chatter of our fellow students than to the lecturer's discourse. Or, if our neighbor copies something down, we sneak it from him, stealing what he himself may have heard imperfectly, and add it to our own errors of spelling and opinion.

Be attentive, feel nothing in vain, measure and compare: this is the whole law of philosophy.

Perhaps pure reason without heart would never have thought of God.

Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever.

Deliberate virtue is never worth much: The virtue of feeling or habit is the thing.

The sure conviction that we could if we wanted to is the reason so many good minds are idle.

Diogenes, filthily attired, paced across the splendid carpets in Plato's dwelling. Thus, said he, do I trample on the pride of Plato. Yes, Plato replied, but only with another kind of pride.