To my great-grandfather I owed the advice to dispense with the education of the schools and have good masters at home instead - and to realize that no expense should be grudged for this purpose.

All things change, and you yourself are constantly wasting away. So also is the universe.

Each day provides its own gifts.

Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

There is no misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good fortune.

As for others whose lives are not so ordered, he reminds himself constantly of the characters they exhibit daily and nightly at home and abroad, and of the sort of society they frequent; and the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.

Treat with utmost respect your power of forming opinions, for this power alone guards you against making assumptions that are contrary to nature and judgments that overthrow the rule of reason.