It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things more restraint and order in my morals than in my opinions, and my lust less depraved than my reason.

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

Obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in, and best becoming, a mean and illiterate soul.

But as Nature is the best guide, teaching must be the development of natural inclinations, for which purpose the teacher must watch his pupil and listen to him, not continually bawl words into his ears as if pouring water into a funnel. Good teaching will come from a mind well made rather than well filled.

If you want it to be so, history can be a waste of time; it can also be, if you want it to be so, a study bearing fruit beyond price.

If love and ambition should be in equal balance, and come to jostle with equal force, I make no doubt but that the last would win the prize.

The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.