Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

I am one of those who hold that poetry is never so blithe as in a wanton and irregular subject.

Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.

Since philosophy is the art which teaches us how to live, and since children need to learn it as much as we do at other ages, why do we not instruct them in it? .. But in truth I know nothing about the philosophy of education except this: that the greatest and the most important difficulty known to human learning seems to lie in that area which treats how to bring up children and how to educate them.

I have a vocabulary all my own. I "pass the time" when it is wet and disagreeable. When it is fine I do not wish to pass it; I ruminate it and hold on to it. We should hasten over the bad, and settle upon the good.

I speak the truth, not my fill of it, but as much as I dare speak; and I dare to do so a little more as I grow old.

As soon as women become ours we are no longer theirs.