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A Man Should Think Less Of What He Eats And More With Whom He Eats Because No Food Is So Satisfying As Good Company.

-Michel De Montaigne

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A Man Should Think

Michel De Montaigne

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A Man Should Think Less Of What He Eats And More With Whom He Eats Because No Food Is So Satisfying As Good Company.

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I Must Use These Great Men's Virtues As A Cloak For My Weakness.

My Library Is My Kingdom, And Here I Try To Make My Rule Absolute-shutting Off This Single Nook From Wife, Daughter And Society. Elsewhere I Have Only A Verbal Authority, And Vague. Unhappy Is The Man, In My Opinion, Who Has No Spot At Home Where He Can Be At Home To Himself-to Court Himself And Hide Away.

There Are Truths On This Side Of The Pyrenees Which Are Falsehoods On The Other

I Am One Of Those Who Hold That Poetry Is Never So Blithe As In A Wanton And Irregular Subject.

Who Does Not See That I Have Taken A Road Along Which I Shall Go, Without Stopping And Without Effort, As Long As There Is Ink And Paper In The World? I Cannot Keep A Record Of My Life By My Actions; Fortune Places Them Too Low. I Keep It By My Thoughts.

A Hair Shirt Does Not Always Render Those Chaste Who Wear It.

Have You Been Able To Think Out And Manage Your Own Life? You Have Done The Greatest Task Of All.... All Other Things, Ruling, Hoarding, Building, Are Only Little Appendages And Props, At Most.

I See Men Ordinarily More Eager To Discover A Reason For Things Than To Find Out Whether The Things Are So.

God Defend Me From Being An Honest Man According To The Description Which Every Day I See Made By Each Man To His Own Glorification

No Profession Or Occupation Is More Pleasing Than The Military; A Profession Or Exercise Both Noble In Execution (for The Strongest, Most Generous And Proudest Of All Virtues Is True Valor) And Noble In Its Cause. No Utility Either More Just Or Universal Than The Protection Of The Repose Or Defense Of The Greatness Of One's Country. The Company And Daily Conversation Of So Many Noble, Young And Active Men Cannot But Be Well-pleasing To You.

There Is A Certain Amount Of Purpose, Acquiescence, And Satisfaction In Nursing One's Melancholy.

My Art And Profession Is To Live.

If I Were A Maker Of Books I Should Compile A Register, With Comments, Of Different Deaths. He Who Should Teach People To Die, Would Teach Them To Live.

A Father Is Very Miserable Who Has No Other Hold On His Children's Affection Than The Need They Have Of His Assistance, If That Can Be Called Affection.

Praise Is Always Pleasing, Let It Come From Whom, Or Upon What Account It Will.

A Man Should Keep For Himself A Little Back Shop, All His Own, Quite Unadulterated, In Which He Establishes His True Freedom And Chief Place Of Seclusion And Solitude.

The Most Useful And Honorable Science And Occupation For A Woman Is The Science Of Housekeeping. I Know Some That Are Miserly, Very Few That Are Good Managers.

For Me, Who Only Desire To Become Wise, Not More Learned Or Eloquent, These Logical Or Aristotelian Dispositions Of Parts Are Of No Use.

"ultimately The Bond Of All Companionship, Whether In Marriage Or In Friendship, Is Conversation." -if You Press Me To Say Why I Loved Him, I Can Say No More Than It Was Because He Was He And I Was I.

A Man Should Ever, As Much As In Him Lieth, Be Ready Booted To Take His Journey, And Above All Things Look He Have Then Nothing To Do But With Himself.

The Lack Of Wealth Is Easily Repaired But The Poverty Of The Soul Is Irreplaceable.

It Is Much More Easy To Accuse The One Sex Than To Excuse The Other.

A Little Of Everything And Nothing Thoroughly, After The French Fashion.

A Man May By Custom Fortify Himself Against Pain, Shame, And Suchlike Accidents; But As To Death, We Can Experience It But Once, And Are All Apprentices When We Come To It

I, Who Am King Of The Matter I Treat, And Who Owe An Accounting For It To No One, Do Not For All That Believe Myself In All I Write. I Often Hazard Sallies Of My Mind Which I Mistrust.

Experience Has Taught Me This, That We Undo Ourselves By Impatience. Misfortunes Have Their Life And Their Limits, Their Sickness And Their Health.

And I Loathe People Who Find It Harder To Put Up With A Gown Askew Than With A Soul Askew And Who Judge A Man By His Bow, His Bearing And His Boots.

To Philosophize Is Nothing Else Than To Prepare Oneself For Death.

Socrates ... Brought Human Wisdom Back Down From Heaven, Where She Was Wasting Her Time, And Restored Her To Man.... It Is Impossible To Go Back Further And Lower. He Did A Great Favor To Human Nature By Showing How Much It Can Do By Itself.

The Greater Part Of The World's Troubles Are Due To Questions Of Grammar.

We Easily Enough Confess In Others An Advantage Of Courage, Strength, Experience, Activity, And Beauty; But An Advantage In Judgment We Yield To None.

Honesty Is A Question Of Right And Wrong, Not A Matter Of Policy

Knowledge Is An Excellent Drug; But No Drug Has Virtue Enough To Preserve Itself From Corruption And Decay, If The Vessel Be Tainted And Impure Wherein It Is Put To Keep.

And Therefore, Reader, I Myself Am The Subject Of My Book: It Is Not Reasonable That You Should Employ Your Leisure On A Topic So Frivolous And So Vain. Therefore, Farewell.

Fortune, To Show Us Her Power In All Things, And To Abate Our Presumption, Seeing She Could Not Make Fools Wise, Has Made Them Fortunate.

Make Your Educational Laws Strict And Your Criminal Ones Can Be Gentle; But If You Leave Youth Its Liberty You Will Have To Dig Dungeons For Ages.

Habit Is Second Nature.

I Know That The Arms Of Friendship Are Long Enough To Reach From The One End Of The World To The Other

It Is A Dangerous And Fateful Presumption, Besides The Absurd Temerity That It Implies, To Disdain What We Do Not Comprehend. For After You Have Established, According To Your Fine Undertstanding, The Limits Of Truth And Falsehood, And It Turns Out That You Must Necessarily Believe Things Even Stranger Than Those You Deny, You Are Obliged From Then On To Abandon These Limits.

All The World Knows Me In My Book, And My Book In Me.

When I Was Young, Beautiful Ancient Statues Were Castrated, So That The Eye Might Not Be Corrupted.... Nothing Was Gained, Unless Horses And Asses Had Also Been Castrated.

And Not To Serve For A Table-talk.

It Is An Injustice That An Old, Broken, Half-dead Father Should Enjoy Alone, In A Corner Of His Hearth, Possessions That Would Suffice For The Advancement And Maintenance Of Many Children.

Our Religion Is Made To Eradicate Vices, Instead It Encourages Them, Covers Them, And Nurtures Them.

It Is Good To Rub And Polish Our Brain Against That Of Others.

Marriage, A Market Which Has Nothing Free But The Entrance.

To Honor Him Whom We Have Made Is Far From Honoring Him That Hath Made Us.

The Most Beautiful Lives, To My Mind, Are Those That Conform To The Common Human Pattern, With Order, But Without Miracle And Without Eccentricity.

I Would Rather Be An Expert On Me Than On Cicero

We Trouble Our Life By Thoughts About Death, And Our Death By Thoughts About Life.

I Do Not Understand; I Pause; I Examine.

Those Who Give The First Shock To A State Are The First Overwhelmed In Its Ruin; The Fruits Of Public Commotion Are Seldom Enjoyed By Him Who Was The First Mover; He Only Beats The Water For Another's Net.

Writing Does Not Cause Misery. It Is Born Of Misery.

Peoples Nurtured On Freedom And Self-government Judge Any Other Form Of Polity To Be Deformed And Unnatural. Those Who Are Used To Monarchy Do The Same .

I Walk Firmer And More Secure Uphill Than Down.

Let Us Not Be Ashamed To Speak What We Shame Not To Think.

Truly Man Is A Marvelously Vain, Diverse, And Undulating Object. It Is Hard To Found Any Constant And Uniform Judgment On Him.

All We Do Is To Look After The Opinions And Learning Of Others: We Ought To Make Them Our Own.

The Common Notions That We Find In Credit Around Us And Infused Into Our Souls By Our Fathers' Seed, These Seem To Be The Universal And Natural Ones. Whence It Comes To Pass That What Is Off The Hinges Of Custom, People Believe To Be Off The Hinges Of Reason.

Speech Belongs Half To The Speaker, Half To The Listener. The Latter Must Prepare To Receive It According To The Motion It Takes.

The Judgment Is An Utensil Proper For All Subjects, And Will Have An Oar In Everything.

We Find Our Energies Are Actually Cramped When We Are Overanxious To Succeed.

The Bees Pillage The Flowers Here And There But They Make Honey Of Them Which Is All Their Own; It Is No Longer Thyme Or Marjolaine: So The Pieces Borrowed From Others He Will Transform And Mix Up Into A Work All His Own.

I Don't Break The Law* Made For Crooks, When I Take Away My Own Property - Thus I Am Not Obliged To Conform To The Law Made For Murderers When I Deprive Myself Of My Own Life.

In My Youth I Studied For Ostentation; Later, A Little To Gain Wisdom; Now, For Recreation; Never For Gain.

The Great And Glorious Masterpiece Of Humanity Is To Know How To Live With A Purpose.

Gentleness And Repose Are Paramount To Everything Else In Woman.

No Man Profiteth But By The Loss Of Others.

No Man Is So Exquisitely Honest Or Upright In Living, But That Ten Times In His Life He Might Not Lawfully Be Hanged.

There Is No More Expensive Thing Than A Free Gift.

The Soul That Has No Established Aim Loses Itself

The Confidence In Another Man's Virtue Is No Light Evidence Of A Man's Own, And God Willingly Favors Such A Confidence.

A Well-bred Man Is Always Sociable And Complaisant.

And One Might Therefore Say Of Me That In This Book I Have Only Made Up A Bunch Of Other People's Flowers, And That Of My Own I Have Only Provided The String That Ties Them Together.

One May Be Humble Out Of Pride.

When I Dance, I Dance; When I Sleep, I Sleep; Yes, And When I Walk Alone In A Beautiful Orchard, If My Thoughts Drift To Far-off Matters For Some Part Of The Time For Some Other Part I Lead Them Back Again To The Walk, The Orchard, To The Sweetness Of This Solitude, To Myself.

We Have The Pleasures Suitable To Our Lot; Let Us Not Usurp Those Of Greatness. Ours Are More Natural And All The More Solid And Sure For Being Humbler. Since We Will Not Do So Out Of Conscience, At Least Out Of Ambition Let Us Reject Ambition.

How Many Things We Held Yesterday As Articles Of Faith Which Today We Tell As Fables.

I Agree That We Should Work And Prolong The Functions Of Life As Far As We Can, And Hope That Death May Find Me Planting My Cabbages, But Indifferent To Him And Still More To The Unfinished State Of My Garden.

The Receipts Of Cookery Are Swelled To A Volume, But A Good Stomach Excels Them All; To Which Nothing Contributes More Than Industry And Temperance.

I Go Out Of My Way, But Rather By License Than Carelessness.... It Is The Inattentive Reader Who Loses My Subject, Not I. Some Word About It Will Always Be Found Off In A Corner, Which Will Not Fail To Be Sufficient, Though It Takes Little Room.

We Endeavor More That Men Should Speak Of Us, Than How And What They Speak, And It Sufficeth Us That Our Name Run In Men's Mouths, In What Manner Soever. It Stemma That To Be Known Is In Some Sort To Have Life And Continuance In Other Men's Keeping.

The Most Fruitful And Natural Exercise For Our Minds Is, In My Opinion, Conversation.

In Order Always To Learn Something From Others (which Is The Finest School There Can Be), I Observe In My Travels This Practice: I Always Steer Those With Whom I Talk Back To The Things They Know Best.

I Care Not So Much What I Am To Others As What I Am To Myself. I Will Be Rich By Myself, And Not By Borrowing.

Other People Do Not See You At All, But Guess At You By Uncertain Conjectures.

One Open Way Of Speaking Introduces Another Open Way Of Speaking, And Draws Out Discoveries, Like Wine And Love.

I Have Seen People Rude By Being Over-polite.

I Had Rather Complain Of Ill-fortune Than Be Ashamed Of Victory.

Only He Can Judge Of Matters Great And High Whose Soul Is Likewise.

Everyone Gives The Title Of Barbarism To Everything That Is Not In Use In His Own Country.

As Great Enmities Spring From Great Friendships, And Mortal Distempers From Vigorous Health, So Do The Most Surprising And The Wildest Frenzies From The High And Lively Agitations Of Our Souls.

It Is A Sign Of Contraction Of The Mind When It Is Content, Or Of Weariness.

The Thing I Fear Most Is Fear.

The Most Ordinary Things, The Most Common And Familiar, If We Could See Them In Their True Light, Would Turn Out To Be The Grandest Miracles.

All Of The Days Go Toward Death And The Last One Arrives There.

No Pleasure Has Any Savor For Me Without Communication.

Without Communication

There Is Nothing Of Evil In Life For Him Who Rightly Comprehends That Death Is No Evil; To Know How To Die Delivers Us From All Subjection And Constraint.

We Have More Poets Than Judges And Interpreters Of Poetry. It Is Easier To Write An Indifferent Poem Than To Understand A Good One. There Is, Indeed, A Certain Low And Moderate Sort Of Poetry, That A Man May Well Enough Judge By Certain Rules Of Art; But The True, Supreme, And Divine Poesy Is Equally Above All Rules And Reason. And Whoever Discerns The Beauty Of It With The Most Assured And Most Steady Sight Sees No More Than The Quick Reflection Of A Flash Of Lightning.

The Beauty Of Stature Is The Only Beauty Of Men.

Let Us A Little Permit Nature To Take Her Own Way; She Better Understands Her Own Affairs Than We.

As By Some Might Be Saide Of Me: That Here I Have But Gathered A Nosegay Of Strange Floures, And Have Put Nothing Of Mine Unto It, But The Thred To Binde Them. Certes, I Have Given Unto Publike Opinion, That These Borrowed Ornaments Accompany Me; But I Meane Not They Should Cover Or Hide Me.

There Is No Wish More Natural Than The Wish To Know.

We Perceive No Charms That Are Not Sharpened, Puffed Out, And Inflated By Artifice. Those Which Glide Along Naturally And Simply Easily Escape A Sight So Gross As Ours.

Report Followeth Not All Goodness, Except Difficulty And Rarity Be Joined Thereto.

Plenty And Indigence Depend Upon The Opinion Every One Has Of Them; And Riches, Like Glory Of Health, Have No More Beauty Or Pleasure Than Their Possessor Is Pleaded To Lend Them.

A Speech Belongs Half To The Speaker And Half To The Listener.

Laws Gain Their Authority From Actual Possession And Custom: It Is Perilous To Go Back To Their Origins; Laws, Like Our Rivers, Get Greater And Nobler As They Roll Along: Follow Them Back Upstream To Their Sources And All You Find Is A Tiny Spring, Hardly Recognizable; As Time Goes By It Swells With Pride And Grows In Strength.

We Cannot Fail In Following Nature.

What A Wonderful Thing It Is That Drop Of Seed, From Which We Are Produced, Bears In Itself The Impressions, Not Only Of The Bodily Shape, But Of The Thoughts And Inclinations Of Our Fathers!

Wisdom Has Its Excesses, And Has No Less Need Of Moderation Than Folly.

Nature Should Have Been Pleased To Have Made This Age Miserable, Without Making It Also Ridiculous.

Not Only Does The Wind Of Accidents Stir Me According To Its Blowing, But I Am Also Stirred And Troubled By The Instability Of My Attitude.

Every Day I Hear Stupid People Say Things That Are Not Stupid.

We Are Never Present With, But Always Beyond Ourselves; Fear, Desire, Hope, Still Push Us On Toward The Future.

No One Should Be Subjected To Force Over Things Which Belonged To Him.

Anyone Who Does Not Feel Sufficiently Strong In Memory Should Not Meddle With Lying.

The Wise Man Lives As Long As He Ought, Not So Long As He Can.

It Costs An Unreasonable Woman No More To Pass Over One Reason Than Another; They Cherish Themselves Most Where They Are Most Wrong.

There Is No So Wretched And Coarse A Soul Wherein Some Particular Faculty Is Not Seen To Shine.

No Man Is Exempt From Saying Silly Things; The Mischief Is To Say Them Deliberately.

Whatever The Benefits Of Fortune Are , They Yet Require A Palate Fit To Relish And Taste Them; 'tis Fruition, And Not Possession, That Renders Us Happy.

He Who Fears He Will Suffer, Already Suffers From His Fear.

Who Feareth To Suffer Suffereth Already, Because He Feareth.

No Pleasure Is Fully Delightful Without Communications, And No Delight Absolute Except Imparted.

We Are Born To Inquire After Truth; It Belongs To A Greater Power To Possess It. It Is Not, As Democritus Said, Hid In The Bottom Of The Deeps, But Rather Elevated To An Infinite Height In The Divine Knowledge.

Books Are A Languid Pleasure.

It Is An Absolute Perfection And Virtually Divine To Know How To Enjoy Our Being Rightfully.

It Is The Part Of Cowardice, Not Of Courage, To Go And Crouch In A Hole Under A Massive Tomb, To Avoid The Blows Of Fortune.

The Only Good Histories Are Those Written By Those Who Had Command In The Events They Describe.

Age Imprints More Wrinkles A In The Mind, Than It Does In The Face, And Souls Are Never, Or Very Rarely Seen, That In Growing Old Do Not Smell Sour And Musty. Man Moves All Together, Both Towards His Perfection And Decay.

The Most Evident Token And Apparent Sign Of True Wisdom Is A Constant And Unconstrained Rejoicing.

The Oldest And Best Known Evil Was Ever More Supportable Than One That Was New And Untried.

I Love A Friendship That Flatters Itself In The Sharpness And Vigor Of Its Communications.

One Must Be A Little Foolish If One Does Not Want To Be Even More Stupid.

It Takes So Much To Be A King That He Exists Only As Such. That Extraneous Glare That Surrounds Him Hides Him And Conceals Him From Us; Our Sight Breaks And Is Dissipated By It Being Filled And Arrested By This Strong Light.

~the Value Of Life Lies Not In The Length Of Days, But In The Use We Make Of Them ~

Satisfaction In Life

All Permanent Decisions Are Made In A Temporary State Of Mind.

Aesop, That Great Man, Saw His Master Making Water As He Walked. "what!" He Said, "must We Void Ourselves As We Run?" Use Our Timeas Best We May, Yet A Great Part Of It Will Still Be Idly And Ill Spent.

God Is Favorable To Those Whom He Makes To Die By Degrees; 'tis The Only Benefit Of Old Age. The Last Death Will Be So Much The Less Painful: It Will Kill But A Quarter Of A Man Or But Half A One At Most.

I Would Rather Be Old For A Shorter Time Than Be Old Before My Time.

I Set Forth Notions That Are Human And My Own, Simply As Human Notions Considered In Themselves, Not As Determined And Decreed By Heavenly Ordinance.

And To Bring In A New Word By The Head And Shoulders, They Leave Out The Old One.

I Say That Male And Female Are Cast In The Same Mold; Except For Education And Habits, The Difference Is Not Great.

The Virtue Of The Soul Does Not Consist In Flying High, But In Walking Orderly.

I Was Not Long Since In A Company Where I Was Not Who Of My Fraternity Brought News Of A Kind Of Pills, By True Account, Composed Of A Hundred And Odd Several Ingredients; Whereat We Laughed Very Heartily, And Made Ourselves Good Sport; For What Rock So Hard Were Able To Resist The Shock Or Withstand The Force Of So Thick And Numerous A Battery?

Why Do People Respect The Package Rather Than The Man?

We Ought To Love Temperance For Itself, And In Obedience To God Who Has Commanded It And Chastity; But What I Am Forced To By Catarrhs, Or Owe To The Stone, Is Neither Chastity Nor Temperance.

As Far As Fidelity Is Concerned, There Is No Animal In The World As Treacherous As Man.

Nature Clasps All Her Creatures In A Universal Embrace; There Is Not One Of Them Which She Has Not Plainly Furnished With All Means Necessary To The Conservation Of Its Being.

If Virtue Cannot Shine Bright, But By The Conflict Of Contrary Appetites, Shall We Then Say That She Cannot Subsist Without The Assistance Of Vice, And That It Is From Her That She Derives Her Reputation And Honor?

I Have Gathered A Posy Of Other Mens Flowers And Only The Thread That Bonds Them Is My Own.

Few Men Are Admired By Their Servants.

No-one Is Exempt From Speaking Nonsense – The Only Misfortune Is To Do It Solemnly.

Miracles Arise From Our Ignorance Of Nature, Not From Nature Itself.

If I Speak Of Myself In Different Ways, That Is Because I Look At Myself In Different Ways.

The Soul Which Has No Fixed Purpose In Life Is Lost; To Be Everywhere, Is To Be Nowhere.

Lost Friendship

Every Place Swarms With Commentaries; Of Authors There Is Great Scarcity.

The Thing In The World I Am Most Afraid Of Is Fear, And With Good Reason; That Passion Alone, In The Trouble Of It, Exceeding All Other Accidents

Of All Our Infirmities, The Most Savage Is To Despise Our Being.

Give Me The Provisions And Whole Apparatus Of A Kitchen, And I Would Starve.

Habit Is A Second Nature.

Is There Anything So Grave And Serious As An Ass?

We Cannot Do Without It, And Yet We Disgrace And Vilify The Same. It May Be Compared To A Cage, The Birds Without Despair To Get In, And Those Within Despair To Get Out.

Whatever Is Preached To Us, And Whatever We Learn, We Should Still Remember That It Is Man That Gives, And Man That Receives; It Is A Mortal Hand That Presents It To Us, It Is A Mortal Hand That Accepts It.

We Have No Participation In Being, Because All Human Nature Is Ever Midway Between Being Born And Dying, Giving Off Only A Vague Image And Shadow Of Itself, And A Weak And Uncertain Opinion. And If You Chance To Fix Your Thoughts On Trying To Grasp Its Essence, It Would Be Neither More Nor Less Than If Your Tried To Clutch Water.

The First Distinction Among Men, And The First Consideration That Gave One Precedence Over Another, Was Doubtless The Advantage Of Beauty.

This Very Rome That We Behold Deserves Our Love ...: The Only Common And Universal City.

All Other Knowledge Is Hurtful To Him Who Has Not Honesty And Good-nature

If To Take Up Books Were To Take Them In, And If To See Them Were To Consider Them, And To Run Through Them Were To Grasp Them, I Should Be Wrong To Make Myself Out Quite As Ignorant As I Say I Am.

We Find Ourselves More Taken With The Running Up And Down, The Games, And Puerile Simplicities Of Our Children, Than We Do, Afterward, With Their Most Complete Actions; As If We Had Loved Them For Our Sport, Like Monkeys, And Not As Men.

Men Do Not Know The Natural Infirmity Of Their Mind: It Does Nothing But Ferret And Quest, And Keeps Incessantly Whirling Around, Building Up And Becoming Entangled In Its Own Work, Like Silkworms, And Is Suffocated In It. A Mouse In A Pitch Barrel...thinks It Notices From A Distance Some Sort Of Glimmer Of Imaginary Light And Truth; But While Running Toward It, It Is Crossed By So Many Difficulties And Obstacles, And Diverted By So Many New Quests, That It Strays From The Road, Bewildered.

To Philosophize Is To Doubt.

If There Is Such A Thing As A Good Marriage, It Is Because It Resembles Friendship Rather Than Love.

Pythagoras Used To Say That Life Resembles The Olympic Games: A Few People Strain Their Muscles To Carry Off A Prize; Others Bring Trinkets To Sell To The Crowd For Gain; And Some There Are, And Not The Worst, Who Seek No Other Profit Than To Look At The Show And See How And Why Everything Is Done; Spectators Of The Life Of Other People In Order To Judge And Regulate Their Own.

There Is Nothing On Which Men Are Commonly More Intent Than On Making A Way For Their Opinions.

Experience Teaches That A Strong Memory Is Generally Joined To A Weak Judgment.

This Idea Is More Surely Understood By Interrogation; What Do I Know? Which I Bear As My Motto With The Emblem Of A Pair Of Scales.

Laws Are Often Made By Fools, And Even More Often By Men Who Fail In Equity Because They Hate Equality: But Always By Men, Vain Authorities Who Can Resolve Nothing.

The Value Of Life Lies Not In The Length Of Days, But In The Use We Make Of Them... Whether You Find Satisfaction In Life Depends Not On Your Tale Of Years, But On Your Will.

Satisfaction In Life

I Will Follow The Right Side Even To The Fire, But Excluding The Fire If I Can.

I Do Not Teach. I Relate.

There Is No Course Of Life So Weak And Sottish As That Which Is Managed By Order, Method, And Discipline.

Who Is Only Good That Others May Know It, And That He May Be The Better Esteemed When 'tis Known, Who Will Do Well But Upon Condition That His Virtue May Be Known To Men, Is One From Whom Much Service Is Not To Be Expected.

My Life Has Been Full Of Terrible Misfortunes Most Of Which Never Happened.

Sometimes It Is A Good Choice Not To Choose At All.

Rejoice In The Things That Are Present; All Else Is Beyond Thee.

Live In The Moment

Past Present Future

The Finest Souls Are Those That Have The Most Variety And Suppleness.

The Study Of Books Is A Drowsy And Feeble Exercise Which Does Not Warm You Up.

Like The Watermen Who Advance Forward While They Look Backward.

There Is Power In Ambition, Pleasure In Luxury...but Envy Can Gain Nothing But Vexation.

Socrates, Who Was A Perfect Model In All Great Qualities, ... Hit On A Body And Face So Ugly And So Incongruous With The Beauty Of His Soul, He Who Was So Madly In Love With Beauty.

Since We Cannot Attain Unto It, Let Us Revenge Ourselves By Railing At It; And Yet It Is Not Absolutely Railing Against Anything, To Proclaim Its Defects, Because They Are In All Things To Be Found, How Beautiful Or How Much To Be Coveted Soever.

Satiety Comes Of Too Frequent Repetition And He Who Will Not Give Himself Leisure To Be Thirsty Can Never Find The True Pleasure Of Drinking

If My Mind Could Gain A Firm Footing, I Would Not Make Essays, I Would Make Decisions; But It Is Always In Apprenticeship And On Trial.

The Smallest Annoyances, Disturb Us The Most.

Such As Are In Immediate Fear Of A Losing Their Estates, Of Banishment, Or Of Slavery, Live In Perpetual Anguish, And Lose All Appetite And Repose; Whereas Such As Are Actually Poor, Slaves, Or Exiles, Ofttimes Live As Merrily As Other Folk.

He That Had Never Seen A River Imagined The First He Met To Be The Sea; And The Greatest Things That Have Fallen Within Our Knowledge We Conclude The Extremes That Nature Makes Of The Kind.

He That Had Never Seen A River, Imagined The First He Met With To Be The Sea.

Taking It All In All, I Find It Is More Trouble To Watch After Money Than To Get It.

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