Nature without exercise is a seed shut up in a pod, and art without practice is nothing.

The best thing for a man to do is to be born and, being born, to die at once.

Learning is the property of those who fear to do disagreeable things.

Why should I be ashamed to describe what nature was not ashamed to create?

They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment.

And there is quite a different sort of conversation around a fire than there is in the shadow of a beech tree.... Four dry logs have in them all the circumstance necessary to a conversation of four or five hours, with chestnuts on the plate and a jug of wine between the legs. Yes, let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.

Anger represents a certain power, when a great mind, prevented from executing its own generous desires, is moved by it.