The common experience is, that the man fits himself as well as he can to the customary details of that work or trade he falls into, and tends it as a dog turns a spit. Then he is part of the machine he moves; the man is lost.

To go into solitude, a man needs to retire as much from his chamber as from society. I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.

Take egotism out and you would castrate the benefactors.

Meek young men grow up in colleges and believe it is their duty to accept the views which books have given, and grow up slaves.

This book of Montaigne the world has endorsed by translating it into all tongues.

The whole value of the dime is in knowing what to do with it.

A cynic can chill and dishearten with a single word.