Piety is not a goal but a means to attain through the purest peace of mind the highest culture.

Enjoy what thou has inherited from thy sires if thou wouldn't really possess it. What we employ and use is never an oppressive burden; what the moment brings forth, that only can it profit by.

The world is full of contradiction.

There are situations in which hope and fear run together, in which they mutually destroy one another and lose themselves in dull indifference.

I must consider more closely this cycle of good and bad days which I find coursing within myself. Passion, attachment, the urge to action, inventiveness, performance, order all alternate and keep their orbit; cheerfulness, vigor, energy, flexibility and fatigue, serenity as well as desire. Nothing disturbs the cycle for I lead a simple life, but I must still find the time and order in which I rotate.

Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than malice and wickedness.

If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.