It is probable that the principal credit of miracles, visions, enchantments, and such extraordinary occurrences comes from the power of imagination, acting principally upon the minds of the common people, which are softer.

I consider it equal injustice to set our heart against natural pleasures and to set our heart too much on them. We should neither pursue them, nor flee them; we should accept them.

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.

All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.

It is an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our being rightfully.

A wise man loses nothing, if he but save himself.

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.