The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

The use of a thing is only a part of its significance. To know anything thoroughly, to have the full command of it in all its appliances, we must study it on its own account, independently of any special application.

There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).

Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.

A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself.

A person is never happy till their vague strivings has itself marked out its proper limitations.

The miller imagines that the corn grows only to make his mill turn.