What kind of truth is this which is true on one side of a mountain and false on the other?

Learning is not to be tacked to the mind, but we must fuse and blend them together, not merely giving the mind a slight tincture, but a thorough and perfect dye. And if we perceive no evident change and improvement, it would be better to leave it alone; learning is a dangerous weapon, and apt to wound its master if it be wielded by a feeble hand, and by one not well acquainted with its use.

Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.

If ordinary people complain that I speak too much of myself, I complain that they do not even think of themselves.

One should always have one's boots on and be ready to leave.

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.

God is favorable to those whom he makes to die by degrees; 'tis the only benefit of old age. The last death will be so much the less painful: it will kill but a quarter of a man or but half a one at most.