To tell men that they cannot help themselves is to fling them into recklessness and despair.
We enter the world alone, we leave it alone.
A single seed of fact will produce in a season or two a harvest of calumnies; but sensible men will pay no attention to them.
Experience teaches slowly, and at the cost of mistakes.
The essence of greatness is neglect of the self.
Where nature is sovereign, there is no need of austerity and self-denial.