The soul that has no established aim loses itself

The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them.

Almost all the opinions we have are taken on authority and on credit.

Those things that are dearest to us have cost us the most.

We are nearer neighbors to ourselves than the whiteness of snow or the weight of stones are to us: if man does not know himself, how should he know his functions and powers?

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

Men are tormented by the opinions they have of things, and not the things themselves.