Since I would rather make of him an able man than a learned man, I would also urge that care be taken to choose a guide with a well-made rather than a well-filled head.

I do not know whether I would not like much better to have produced one perfectly formed child by intercourse with the muses than by intercourse with my wife.

Judgement holds in me a magisterial seat, at least it carefully tries to. It lets my feelings go their way, both hatred and friendship, even the friendship I bear myself, without being changed and corrupted by them.

All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

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.

The study of books is a drowsy and feeble exercise which does not warm you up.