Should this my firm persuasion of the soul's immortality prove to be a mere delusion, it is at least a pleasing delusion, and I will cherish it to my last breath.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

Nature abhors annihilation.

It is graceful in a man to think and to speak with propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every occurrence of life to find out and persevere in the truth. On the other hand, to be imposed upon, to mistake, to falter, and to be deceived, is as ungraceful as to rave or to be insane.

I never admire another's fortune so much that I became dissatisfied with my own.