If you have known how to compose your life, you have done a great deal more than the person who knows how to compose a book. You have done more than the one who has taken cities and empires.

Is it not better to remain in suspense than to entangle yourself in the many errors that the human fancy has produced? Is it not better to suspend your convictions than to get mixed up in these seditious and quarrelsome divisions?

Presumption is our natural and original malady. The most vulnerable and frail of all creatures is man, and at the same time the most arrogant.

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.

Every man may speak truly, but to speak methodically, prudently, and fully is a talent that few men have.

The archer who overshoots his mark does no better than he who falls short of it.

Certainly, if he still has himself, a man of understanding has lost nothing.