I must accommodate my history to the hour: I may presently change, not only by fortune, but also by intention.

Ceremony forbids us to express by words things that are lawful and natural, and we obey it; reason forbids us to do things unlawful and ill, and nobody obeys it.

Unless a man feels he has a good enough memory, he should never venture to lie.

To philosophize is to learn to die.

My errors are by now natural and incorrigible; but the good that worthy men do the public by making themselves imitable, I shall perhaps do by making myself evitable.

The perpetual work of your life is but to lay the foundation of death.

I love a gay and sociable wisdom, and shun harshness and austerity in behaviour, holding every surly countenance suspect.