“I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.”

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.

How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!

I do myself a greater injury in lying than I do him of whom I tell a lie.

He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.

For truly it is to be noted, that children’s plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.

Confidence in the goodness of another is good proof of one’s own goodness.

The thing I fear most is fear.

Unless a man feels he has a good enough memory, he should never venture to lie.

He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.

A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.

The ceaseless labour of your life is to build the house of death.

It is a monstrous thing that I will say, but I will say it all the same: I find in many things more restraint and order in my morals than in my opinions, and my lust less depraved than my reason.

The worst of my actions or conditions seem not so ugly unto me as I find it both ugly and base not to dare to avouch for them.

I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.