No man dies before his hour. The time you leave behind was no more yours, than that which was before your birth, and concerneth you no more.

God defend me from being an honest man according to the description which every day I see made by each man to his own glorification

The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts, and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.

All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.

I do not believe, from what I have been told about this people, that there is anything barbarous or savage about them, except that we all call barbarous anything that is contrary to our own habits.

I consider it equal injustice to set our heart against natural pleasures and to set our heart too much on them. We should neither pursue them, nor flee them; we should accept them.

Among the liberal arts, let us begin with the art that liberates us.