There's no greater sign of being a poor philosopher and wise man than wanting all of life to be wise and philosophical.

There are some centuries which - apart from everything else - in the art and other disciplines presume to remake everything because they know how to make nothing.

The greater part of the people we assign to educate our sons we know for certain are not educated. Yet we do not doubt that they can give what they have not received, a thing which cannot be otherwise acquired.

I find it awfully difficult to determine if the habit of talking about oneself at length runs contrary to the basic rules of propriety, or if instead the man exempt from this vice is rare.

Irresolute men are sometimes very persistent in their undertakings, because if they give up their designs they would have to make a second resolution.

People are ridiculous only when they try or seem to be that which they are not.

That is why all great men are modest: they consistently measure themselves not in comparison to other people but to the idea of perfection ever present in their minds, an ideal infinitely clearer and greater than any common people have, and they also realize how far they are from fulfilling their ideal.