Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.

We are born to lose and to perish, to hope and to fear, to vex ourselves and others; and there is no antidote against a common calamity but virtue; for the foundation of true joy is in the conscience.

The body is not a permanent dwelling, but a sort of inn which is to be left behind when one perceives that one is a burden to the host.

Every guilty person is his own hangman.

I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially my own affairs; I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them.

Desultory reading is delightful, but to be beneficial, our reading must be carefully directed.

There are more things to alarm us than to harm us, and we suffer more often in apprehension than reality.