The formation of one's character ought to be everyone's chief aim.

Can a sparrow know how a stork feels?

The mob has nothing to lose, everything to gain.

He who does not expect a million readers should not write a line.

And I have again observed, my dear friend, in this trifling affair, that misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence.

The best fortune that can fall to a man is that which corrects his defects and makes up for his failings.

The history of knowledge is a great fugue in which the voices of the nations one after the other emerge.