It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.

In order always to learn something from others (which is the finest school there can be), I observe in my travels this practice: I always steer those with whom I talk back to the things they know best.

Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being.

The thing I fear most is fear.

The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.

I look upon the too good opinion that man has of himself, as the nursing mother of all false opinions, both public and private.

Virtue shuns ease as a companion. It demands a rough and thorny path.