The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have reason to applaud and love himself.

Power is not happiness. Security and peace are more to be desired than a name at which nations tremble.

If he who employs coercion against me could mould me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would. He pretends to punish me because his argument is strong; but he really punishes me because his argument is weak.

It is absurd to expect the inclinations and wishes of two human beings to coincide, through any long period of time. To oblige them to act and live together is to subject them to some inevitable potion of thwarting, bickering, and unhappiness.

He has no right to his life when his duty calls him to resign it. Other men are bound ... to deprive him of life or liberty, if that should appear in any case to be indispensably necessary to prevent a greater evil.

We are so curiously made that one atom put in the wrong place in our original structure will often make us unhappy for life.

The wise man is satisfied with nothing.