There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

Experience teaches that a strong memory is generally joined to a weak judgment.

Among the liberal arts, let us begin with the art that liberates us.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

Their [the Skeptics'] way of speaking is: "I settle nothing. . . . I do not understand it. . . . Nothing seems true that may not seem false." Their sacramental word is . . . , which is to say, I suspend my judgment.

We find ourselves more taken with the running up and down, the games, and puerile simplicities of our children, than we do, afterward, with their most complete actions; as if we had loved them for our sport, like monkeys, and not as men.

I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.