I leaf through books, I do not study them. What I retain of them is something I no longer recognize as anyone else's.

Friendship is a creature formed for a companionship not for a herd.

Socrates ... brought human wisdom back down from heaven, where she was wasting her time, and restored her to man.... It is impossible to go back further and lower. He did a great favor to human nature by showing how much it can do by itself.

We must reserve a back shop all our own entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude.

Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener. The latter must prepare to receive it according to the motion it takes.

All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.

It is only certain that there is nothing certain, and that nothing is more miserable or more proud than man.