Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command.

Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.

At bottom there is but one subject of study: the forms and metamorphoses of mind. All other subjects may be reduced to that; all other studies bring us back to this study.

Put personal ambition away from you, and then you will find consolation in living or in dying, whatever may happen to you.

To know how to suggest is the great art of teaching. To attain it we must be able to guess what will interest; we must learn to read the childish soul as we might a piece of music. Then, by simply changing the key, we keep up the attraction and vary the song.

The immense majority of our species are candidates for humanity, and nothing more.

Man is a willful and covetous animal, who makes use of his intellect to satisfy his inclinations, but who cares nothing for truth, who rebels against personal discipline, who hates disinterested thought and the idea of self-education. Wisdom offends him, because it rouses in him disturbance and confusion, and because he will not see himself as he is.