There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.

The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.

Writing does not cause misery. It is born of misery.

Their pupils and their little charges are not nourished and fed by what they learn: the learning is passed from hand to hand with only one end in view: to show it off, to put into our accounts to entertain others with it, as though it were merely counters, useful for totting up and producing statements, but having no other use or currency. 'Apud alios loqui didicerunt, non ipsi secum' [They have learned how to talk with others, not with themselves]

Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best; and he answered as I would have done when he said, "Somebody else's".

Repentance is no other than a recanting of the will, and opposition to our fancies, which lead us which way they please.