I look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself, as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.

Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.

A father is very miserable who has no other hold on his children's affection than the need they have of his assistance, if that can be called affection.

Whatever I may be, I want to be elsewhere than on paper. My art and my industry have been employed in making myself good for something; my studies, in teaching me to do, not to write. I have put all my efforts into forming my life. That is my trade and my work.

The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.

There is no course of life so weak and sottish as that which is managed by order, method, and discipline.