And here, poor fool, with all my lore I stand no wiser than before.

Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.

He who does not think much of himself is much more esteemed than he imagines.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more. Encouragement after censure is as the sun after a shower.

You must either conquer and rule or serve and lose, suffer or triumph, be the anvil or the hammer.

People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.

These auspicious aspects, which the astrologers subsequently interpreted for me, may have been the causes of my preservation.