Obstinacy and dogmatism are the surest signs of stupidity. Is there anything more confident, resolute, disdainful, grave and serious than an ass?

To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.

Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.

The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.

We do not know where death awaits us: so let us wait for it everywhere. To practice death is to practice freedom. A man who has learned how to die has unlearned how to be a slave.

To behave rightly, we ourselves should never lay a hand on our servants as long as our anger lasts. Things will seem different to us when we have quieted and cooled down.