A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.

There is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.

It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.

It has never occurred to me to wish for empire or royalty, nor for the eminence of those high and commanding fortunes. My aim lies not in that direction; I love myself too well.

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.

Diogenes was asked what wine he liked best; and he answered as I would have done when he said, "Somebody else's".

I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not conformable to it; the essence of it is abstruse and occult, but the appearances easy and showy.