Who does not see that I have taken a road along which I shall go, without stopping and without effort, as long as there is ink and paper in the world? I cannot keep a record of my life by my actions; fortune places them too low. I keep it by my thoughts.

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

We must learn to suffer what we cannot evade.

Nature has made us a present of a broad capacity for entertaining ourselves apart, and often calls us to do so, to teach us that we owe ourselves in part to society, but in the best part to ourselves.

Perhaps it is not without reason that we attribute facility in belief and conviction to simplicity and ignorance; for it seems to me I once learned that belief was sort of an impression made on our mind, and that the softer it is the less resistant t.

Thus we should beware of clinging to vulgar opinions, and judge things by reason's way, not by popular say.

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.