A man must always study, but he must not always go to school: what a contemptible thing is an old abecedarian!

Men ... are not agreed about any one thing, not even that heaven is over our heads.

If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than it was because he was he, and I was I.

Is there a polity better ordered, the offices better distributed, and more inviolably observed and maintained, than that of bees?

One may be humble out of pride.

Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss.

It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.