Fine conduct is always spontaneous.

Virtue is nothing else than right reason

It is a common thing to screw up justice to the pitch of an injury. A man may be over-righteous, and why not over-grateful, too? There is a mischievous excess that borders so close upon ingratitude that it is no easy matter to distinguish the one from the other; but, in regard that there is good-will in the bottom of it, however distempered; for it is effectually but kindness out of the wits.

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.

What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend. That is progress indeed

To make a commencement requires a mental effort.

A large library is apt to distract rather than to instruct the learner; it is much better to be confined to a few authors than to wander at random over many.