I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures.

Valor is strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul; it consists not in the worth of our horse or our weapons, but in our own.

I speak the truth, not my fill of it, but as much as I dare speak; and I dare to do so a little more as I grow old.

How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!

I have gathered a posy of other men’s flowers and only the thread that bonds them is my own.

Socrates thought and so do I that the wisest theory about the gods is no theory at all.

In my opinion, the most fruitful and natural play of the mind is conversation. I find it sweeter than any other action in life; and if I were forced to choose, I think I would rather lose my sight than my hearing and voice. The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.