Custom is a violent and treacherous school mistress. She, by little and lithe, slyly and unperceived, slips in the foot of her authority; but having by this gentle and humble beginning, with the benefit of time, fixed and established it, she then unmasks a furious and tyrannic countenance, against which we have no more the courage or the power so much as to lift up our eyes.

A straight oar looks bent in the water. It matters not merely that we see a thing, but how we see it.

I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice.

True freedom is to have power over oneself for everything.

Most pleasures embrace us but to strangle.

Truly it is reasonable to make a great distinction between the faults that come from our weakness and those that come from our wickedness.

I seek in books only to give myself pleasure by honest amusement; or if I study, I seek only the learning that treats of the knowledge of myself and instructs me in how to die well and live well.