Do to others as you would have others do to you, inspires all men with that other maxim of natural goodness a great deal less perfect, but perhaps more useful: Do good to yourself with as little prejudice as you can to others.

Truth is an homage that the good man pays to his own dignity.

The man is best served who has no occasion to put the hands of others at the end of his own arms.

Nothing is less in our power than the heart, and far from commanding we are forced to obey it.

To study men, we must look close by; to study man, we must learn to look afar; if we are to discover essential characteristics, we must first observe differences.

Everything is in constant flux on this earth. Nothing keeps the same unchanging shape, and our affections, being attached to things outside us, necessarily change and pass away as they do. Always out ahead of us or lagging behind, they recall a past which is gone or anticipate a future which may never come into being; there is nothing solid there for the heart to attach itself to. Thus our earthly joys are almost without exception the creatures of a moment.

To renounce freedom is to renounce one's humanity, one's rights as a man and equally one's duties.