There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.

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

The height and value of true virtue consists in the facility, utility, and pleasure of its exercise; so far from difficulty, that boys, as well as men, and the innocent as well as the subtle, may make it their own; and it is by order and good conduct, and not by force, that it is to be acquired.

I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet.

I seek in books only to give myself pleasure by honest amusement; or if I study, I seek only the learning that treats of the knowledge of myself and instructs me in how to die well and live well.

The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould

When all is summed up, a man never speaks of himself without loss; his accusations of himself are always believed; his praises never.