If these Essays were worthy of being judged, it might fall out, in my opinion, that they would not find much favour, either with common and vulgar minds, or with uncommon and eminent ones: the former would not find enough in them, the latter would find too much; they might manage to live somewhere in the middle region.

It is an absolute perfection... to get the very most out of one's individuality.

Every period of life has its peculiar prejudices; whoever saw old age, that did not applaud the past, and condemn the present times?

The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little.

Wisdom is a solid and entire building, of which every piece keeps its place and bears its mark.

The world is but a perennial movement. All things in it are in constant motion-the earth, the rocks of the Caucasus, the pyramids of Egypt-both with the common motion and with their own.

Natural inclinations are assisted and reinforced by education, but they are hardly ever altered or overcome.