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A Volunteer, You Assign Yourself Specific Roles And Risks According To Your Judgement Of Their Brilliance And Importance, And You See When Life Itself May Be Justifiably Devoted To Them.

-Michel De Montaigne

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A Volunteer, You Assign

Michel De Montaigne

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A Volunteer, You Assign Yourself Specific Roles And Risks According To Your Judgement Of Their Brilliance And Importance, And You See When Life Itself May Be Justifiably Devoted To Them.

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There Is No Man So Good, Who, Were He To Submit All His Thoughts And Actions To The Laws, Would Not Deserve Hanging Ten Times In His Life.

Stubborn And Ardent Clinging To One's Opinion Is The Best Proof Of Stupidity.

Intoxication Is Calculated To Put Heart Into The Elderly And Give Them Delight In Dancing.

.. Since It Was True That Study, Even When Done Properly, Can Only Teach Us What Wisdom, Right Conduct And Determination Consist In, They Wanted To Put Their Children Directly In Touch With Actual Cases, Teaching Them Not By Hearsay But By Actively Assaying Them, Vigorously Molding And Forming Them Not Merely By Word And Precept But Chiefly By Deeds And Examples, So That Wisdom Should Not Be Something Which The Soul Knows But The Soul's Very Essence And Temperament, Not Something Acquired But A Natural Property.

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.

No Man Dies Before His Hour. The Time You Leave Behind Was No More Yours, Than That Which Was Before Your Birth, And Concerneth You No More.

A Volunteer, You Assign Yourself Specific Roles And Risks According To Your Judgement Of Their Brilliance And Importance, And You See When Life Itself May Be Justifiably Devoted To Them.

We Imagine Much More Appropriately An Artisan On His Toilet Seat Or On His Wife Than A Great President, Venerable By His Demeanorand His Ability. It Seems To Us That They Do Not Stoop From Their Lofty Thrones Even To Live.

Judgement Holds In Me A Magisterial Seat, At Least It Carefully Tries To. It Lets My Feelings Go Their Way, Both Hatred And Friendship, Even The Friendship I Bear Myself, Without Being Changed And Corrupted By Them.

Men ... Are Not Agreed About Any One Thing, Not Even That Heaven Is Over Our Heads.

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

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

When I Quote Others I Do So In Order To Express My Own Ideas More Clearly.

We Must Learn To Suffer What We Cannot Evade.

Courtesy, Like Grace And Beauty, That Which Begets Liking And Inclination To Love One Another At The First Sight, And In The Very Beginning Of Our Acquaintance And Familiarity; And, Consequently, That Which First Opens The Door For Us To Better Ourselves By The Example Of Others, If There Be Anything In The Society Worth Notice

It Needs Courage To Be Afraid.

It Has Never Occurred To Me To Wish For Empire Or Royalty, Nor For The Eminence Of Those High And Commanding Fortunes. My Aim Lies Not In That Direction; I Love Myself Too Well.

How Many Quarrels, And How Important, Has The Doubt As To The Meaning Of This Syllable "hoc" Produced For The World!

What Enriches Language Is Its Being Handled And Exploited By Beautiful Minds-not So Much By Making Innovations As By Expanding It Through More Vigorous And Varied Applications, By Extending It And Deploying It. It Is Not Words That They Contribute: What They Do Is Enrich Their Words, Deepen Their Meanings And Tie Down Their Usage; They Teach It Unaccustomed Rhythms, Prudently Though And With Ingenuity.

He Who Establishes His Argument By Noise And Command Shows That His Reason Is Weak.

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

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

He Who Does Not Live In Some Degree For Others, Hardly Lives For Himself.

What Am I To Choose? "choose What You Please, As Long As You Choose." There You Have A Foolish Answer, Which Seems To Be The Outcome, However, Of All Dogmatism, Which Will Not Allow Us To Be Ignorant Of That Which We Are Ignorant.

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

And Obstinacy Is The Sister Of Constancy, At Least In Vigour And Stability.

Meditation Is A Rich And Powerful Method Of Study For Anyone Who Knows How To Examine His Mind.

The Conduct Of Our Lives Is The True Mirror Of Our Doctrine.

Death Pays All Debts.

A Good Marriage ... Is A Sweet Association In Life: Full Of Constancy, Trust, And An Infinite Number Of Useful And Solid Services And Mutual Obligations.

The Finest Lives In My Opinion Are The Common Model, Without Miracle And Without Extravagance.

Water, Earth, Air, Fire, And The Other Parts Of This Structure Of Mine Are No More Instruments Of Your Life Than Instruments Of Your Death. Why Do You Fear Your Last Day? It Contributes No More To Your Death Than Each Of The Others. The Last Step Does Not Cause The Fatigue, But Reveals It. All Days Travel Toward Death, The Last One Reaches It.

It Is In The Enjoyment And Not In Mere Possession That Makes For Happiness.

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

Lucius Arruntius Killed Himself, He Said, To Escape Both The Future And The Past.

There Is A Huge Gulf Between The Man Who Follows The Conventions And Laws Of His Country And The Man Who Sets Out To Regiment Them And To Change Them.

We Should Be Similarly Wary Of Accepting Common Opinions; We Should Judge Them By The Ways Of Reason Not By Popular Vote.

The Continuous Work Of Our Life Is To Build Death.

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.

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

In Truth, The Care And Expense Of Our Fathers Aims Only At Furnishing Our Heads With Knowledge; Of Judgement And Virtue, Little News.

Even From Their Infancy We Frame Them To The Sports Of Love: Their Instruction, Behavior, Attire, Grace, Learning And All Their Words Azimuth Only At Love, Respects Only Affection. Their Nurses And Their Keepers Imprint No Other Thing In Them.

Nothing Else But An Insatiate Thirst Of Enjoying A Greedily Desired Object.

My Appetite Comes To Me While Eating.

As For Me, Then, I Love Life And Cultivate It Just As God Has Been Pleased To Grant It To Us.

I Do Not Believe, From What I Have Been Told About This People, That There Is Anything Barbarous Or Savage About Them, Except That We All Call Barbarous Anything That Is Contrary To Our Own Habits.

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

Every Period Of Life Has Its Peculiar Prejudices; Whoever Saw Old Age, That Did Not Applaud The Past, And Condemn The Present Times?

A Man Must Not Always Tell All, For That Be Folly; But What A Man Says Should Be What He Thinks.

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.

Men Are Tormented By The Opinions They Have Of Things, And Not The Things Themselves.

Philosophical Discussions Habitually Make Men Happy And Joyful Not Frowning And Sad.

Words Of Wisdom

When We Have Got It, We Want Something Else.

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

How Many We Know Who Have Fled The Sweetness Of A Tranquil Life In Their Homes, Among The Friends, To Seek The Horror Of Uninhabitable Deserts; Who Have Flung Themselves Into Humiliation, Degradation, And The Contempt Of The World, And Have Enjoyed These And Even Sought Them Out.

How Many Valiant Men We Have Seen To Survive Their Own Reputation!

Nature Has With A Motherly Tenderness Observed This, That The Action She Has Enjoyned Us For Our Necessity Should Be Also Pleasant To Us, And Invites Us To Them, Not Only By Reason, But Also By Appetite: And tis Injustice To Infringe Her Laws.

Fame And Tranquility Can Never Be Bedfellows.

Any Time And Any Place Can Be Used To Study: His Room, A Garden, Is Table, His Bed; When Alone Or In Company; Morning And Evening. His Chief Study Will Be Philosophy, That Former Of Good Judgement And Character Who Is Privileged To Be Concerned With Everything.

Like The Watermen Who Advance Forward While They Look Backward.

What Kind Of Truth Is This Which Is True On One Side Of A Mountain And False On The Other?

We Judge A Horse Not Only By Its Pace On A Racecourse, But Also By Its Walk, Nay, When Resting In Its Stable.

If People Must Be Talking About Me, I Would Have It To Be Truthfully And Justly. I Would Willingly Return From The Next World To Contradict Any Person Who Described Me Other Than I Was, Although He Did It To Honour Me.

I Prefer The Company Of Peasants Because They Have Not Been Educated Sufficiently To Reason Incorrectly.

There Are Few Men Who Dare To Publish To The World The Prayers They Make To Almighty God.

True It Is That She Who Escapeth Safe And Unpolluted From Out The School Of Freedom, Giveth More Confidence Of Herself Than She Who Comet Sound Out Of The School Of Severity And Restraint.

Self Confidence

'tis The Sharpness Of Our Mind That Gives The Edge To Our Pains And Pleasures.

All Passions That Suffer Themselves To Be Relished And Digested Are But Moderate.

Scratching Is One Of Nature's Sweetest Gratifications, And Nearest At Hand.

There Is Nothing So Noble And So Right As To Play Our Human Life Well And Fitly, Nor Anything So Difficult To Learn As How To Livethis Life Well And According To Nature.

There Are Few Things On Which We Can Pass A Sincere Judgement, Because There Are Few Things In Which We Have Not, In One Way Or Another, A Particular Interest.

There Is Some Shadow Of Delight And Delicacy Which Smiles Upon And Flatters Us Even In The Very Lap Of Melancholy.

I Have Never Observed Other Effects Of Whipping Than To Render Boys More Cowardly, Or More Willfully Obstinate.

What Fear Has Once Made Me Will, I Am Bound Still To Will When Without Fear.

Learned We May Be With Another Man's Learning: We Can Only Be Wise With Wisdom Of Our Own.

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.

One May Be Humble Out Of Pride.

I Do Not Teach. I Relate.

What Kind Of Truth Is It Which Has These Mountains As Its Boundary And Is A Lie Beyond Them?

No One But Yourself Knows Whether You Are Cowardly And Cruel, Or Loyal And Devout; Others Do Not See You; They Surmise You By Uncertain Conjectures; They Perceive Not So Much Your Nature As Your Art.

Now There Cannot Be First Principles For Men, Unless The Divinity Has Revealed Them; All The Rest--beginning, Middle, And End--isnothing But Dreams And Smoke.

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

Satisfaction In Life

I Have Never Known A Greater Miracle, Or Monster, Than Myself.

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

Valor Is Strength, Not Of Legs And Arms, But Of Heart And Soul; It Consists Not In The Worth Of Our Horse Or Our Weapons, But In Our Own.

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

The Plague Of Man Is The Opinion Of Knowledge. That Is Why Ignorance Is So Recommended By Our Religion As A Quality Suitable To Belief And Obedience.

Great Authors, When They Write About Causes, Adduce Not Only Those They Think Are True But Also Those They Do Not Believe In, Provided They Have Some Originality And Beauty. They Speak Truly And Usefully Enough If They Speak Ingeniously.

Arts And Sciences Are Not Cast In A Mould, But Are Found And Perfected By Degrees, By Often Handling And Polishing.

Live As Long As You Please, You Will Strike Nothing Off The Time You Will Have To Spend Dead.

Princes Give Mee Sufficiently, If They Take Nothing From Me, And Doe Me Much Good, If They Doe Me No Hurt: It Is All I Require Of Them.

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 .

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.

Off I Go, Rummaging About In Books For Sayings Which Please Me.

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.

There Is No Knowledge So Hard To Acquire As The Knowledge Of How To Live This Life Well And Naturally.

In True Friendship, In Which I Am Expert, I Give Myself To My Friend More Than I Draw Him To Me. I Not Only Like Doing Him Good Better Than Having Him Do Me Good, But Also Would Rather Have Him Do Good To Himself Than To Me; He Does Me Most Good When He Does Himself Good.

It Is In Vain That We Get Upon Stilts, For Once On Them, It Is Still With Our Legs That We Must Walk. And On The Highest Throne In The World We Are Still Sitting On Our Own Ass.

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

Nobody Is Exempt From Saying Stupid Things, The Harm Is To Do It Presumptuously.

How Often Our Involuntary Facial Motions Testify To The Thoughts We Were Keeping Secret, And Betray Us To Those Around!

Keeping Secrets

There Were Many Terrible Things In My Life And Most Of Them Never Happened.

To Begin Depriving Death Of Its Greatest Advantage Over Us, Let Us Adopt A Way Clean Contrary To That Common One; Let Us Deprive Death Of Its Strangeness, Let Us Frequent It, Let Us Get Used To It; Let Us Have Nothing More Often In Mind Than Death... We Do Not Know Where Death Awaits Us: So Let Us Wait For It Everywhere." "to Practice Death Is To Practice Freedom. A Man Who Has Learned How To Die Has Unlearned How To Be A Slave.

No Wind Favors He Who Has No Destined Port.

Women Are More Susceptible To Pain Than To Pleasure.

Things Seem Greater By Imagination Than They Are In Effect.

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.

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.

Lend Yourself To Others, But Give Yourself To Yourself.

To How Many Blockheads Of My Time Has A Cold And Taciturn Demeanor Procured The Credit Of Prudence And Capacity!

Women Are Not Altogether In The Wrong When They Refuse The Rules Of Life Prescribed To The World, For Men Only Have Established Them And Without Their Consent.

The Body Enjoys A Great Share In Our Being, And Has An Eminent Place In It. Its Structure And Composition, Therefore, Are Worthy Of Proper Consideration.

I Am Disgusted With Innovation, In Whatever Guise, And With Reason, For I Have Seen Very Harmful Effects Of It.

Tortures Are A Dangerous Invention, And Seem To Be A Test Of Endurance Rather Than Of Truth.

It Is For Little Souls, That Truckle Under The Weight Of Affairs, Not To Know How Clearly To Disengage Themselves, And Not To Know How To Lay Them Aside And Take Them Up Again.

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.

Love To His Soul Gave Eyes; He Knew Things Are Not As They Seem. The Dream Is His Real Life; The World Around Him Is The Dream.

And Truly Philosophy Is But Sophisticated Poetry. Whence Do Those Ancient Writers Derive All Their Authority But From The Poets?

But As Nature Is The Best Guide, Teaching Must Be The Development Of Natural Inclinations, For Which Purpose The Teacher Must Watch His Pupil And Listen To Him, Not Continually Bawl Words Into His Ears As If Pouring Water Into A Funnel. Good Teaching Will Come From A Mind Well Made Rather Than Well Filled.

Who So Hath His Mind On Taking, Hath It No More On What He Taketh.

Truth And Reason Are Common To Everyone, And Are No More His Who Spake Them First Than His Who Speaks Them After.

Silence And Modesty Are Very Valuable Qualities In Conversation.

In Nine Lifetimes, You'll Never Know As Much About Your Cat As Your Cat Knows About You.

Every Other Knowledge Is Harmful To Him Who Does Not Have Knowledge Of Goodness.

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

The Profit We Possess After Study Is To Have Become Better And Wiser.

No Noble Thing Can Be Done Without Risks.

After Mature Deliberation Of Counsel, The Good Queen To Establish A Rule And Immutable Example Unto All Posterity, For The Moderation And Required Modesty In A Lawful Marriage, Ordained The Number Of Six Times A Day As A Lawful, Necessary And Competent Limit.

Habit Is A Second Nature.

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.

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

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

I Set Forth A Humble And Inglorious Life; That Does Not Matter. You Can Tie Up All Moral Philosophy With A Common And Private Life Just As Well As With A Life Of Richer Stuff. Each Man Bears The Entire Form Of Man's Estate.

Men Of Simple Understanding, Little Inquisitive And Little Instructed, Make Good Christians.

Oh Senseless Man, Who Cannot Possibly Make A Worm Or A Flea And Yet Will Create Gods By The Dozen!

There Is More Ado To Interpret Interpretations Than To Interpret Things, And More Books Upon Books Than Upon Any Other Subject; We Do Nothing But Comment Upon One Another. Every Place Swarms With Commentaries; Of Authors There Is Great Scarcity.

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.

Wise People Are Foolish If They Cannot Adapt To Foolish People.

There Is No Man So Good That If He Placed All His Actions And Thoughts Under The Scrutiny Of The Laws, He Would Not Deserve Hanging Ten Times In His Life.

I Am Myself The Matter Of My Book.

The Souls Of Emperors And Cobblers Are Cast In The Same Mould

Glory Consists Of Two Parts: The One In Setting Too Great A Value Upon Ourselves, And The Other In Setting Too Little A Value Upon Others.

I Walk Firmer And More Secure Uphill Than Down.

We Wake Sleeping, And Sleep Waking. I Do Not See So Clearly In My Sleep; But As To My Being Awake, I Never Found It Clear Enough And Free From Clouds.

The Bitterness Of The Potion, And The Abhorrence Of The Patient Are Necessary Circumstances To The Operation. It Must Be Something To Trouble And Disturb The Stomach That Must Purge And Cure It.

A Man Must Either Imitate The Vicious Or Hate Them.

We Should Rather Examine, Who Is Better Learned, Than Who Is More Learned.

Getting Married Is Very Much Like Going To A Restaurant With Friends. You Order What You Want Then When You See What The Other Person Has, You Wish You Had Ordered That.

The Thing In The World I Am Most Afraid Of Is Fear.

To Call Out For The Hand Of The Enemy Is A Rather Extreme Measure, Yet A Better One, I Think, Than To Remain In Continual Fever Over An Accident That Has No Remedy. But Since All The Precautions That A Man Can Take Are Full Of Uneasiness And Uncertainty, It Is Better To Prepare With Fine Assurance For The Worst That Can Happen, And Derive Some Consolation From The Fact That We Are Not Sure That It Will Happen.

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

[marriage] Happens As With Cages: The Birds Without Despair To Get In, And Those Within Despair Of Getting Out.

A Foreign War Is A Lot Milder Than A Civil War.

From Obedience And Submission Comes All Our Virtues, And All Sin Is Comes From Self-opinion.

Were I To Live My Life Over Again, I Should Live It Just As I Have Done. I Neither Complain Of The Past, Nor Do I Fear The Future.

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

My Trade And Art Is To Live.

The Clatter Of Arms Drowns Out The Voice Of Law.

It Is Not Death, It Is Dying That Alarms Me.

Death And Dying

To Compose Our Character Is Our Duty, Not To Compose Books, And To Win, Not Battles And Provinces, But Order And Tranquillity In Our Conduct.

Courtesy Is A Science Of The Highest Importance. It Is...opening A Door That We May Derive Instruction From The Example Of Others, And At The Same Time Enabling Us To Benefit Them By Our Example, If There Be Anything In Our Character Worthy Of Imitation.

A Wellborn Mind That Is Practiced In Dealing With People Makes Itself Thoroughly Agreeable By Itself. Art Is Nothing Else But Thelist And Record Of The Productions Of Such Minds.

I Know Well What I Am Fleeing From But Not What I Am In Search Of.

Finding Yourself

I Honor Most Those To Whom I Show Least Honor; And Where My Soul Moves With Great Alacrity, I Forget The Proper Steps Of Ceremony.

Fortune, Seeing That She Could Not Make Fools Wise, Has Made Them Lucky.

To Die Is Not To Play A Part In Society; It Is The Act Of A Single Person. Let Us Live And Laugh Among Our Friends; Let Us Die And Sulk Among Strangers.

No Doctor Takes Pleasure In The Health Even Of His Friends.

Time Steals Away Without Any Inconvenience.

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.

Socrates Thought And So Do I That The Wisest Theory About The Gods Is No Theory At All.

The Land Of Marriage Has This Peculiarity: That Strangers Are Desirous Of Inhabiting It, While Its Natural Inhabitants Would Willingly Be Banished From Thence.

Obstinacy And Dogmatism Are The Surest Signs Of Stupidity. Is There Anything More Confident, Resolute, Disdainful, Grave And Serious Than An Ass?

There Is Nothing Which So Poisons Princes As Flattery, Nor Anything Whereby Wicked Men More Easily Obtain Credit And Favor With Them.

I Do Not Portray The Thing In Itself. I Portray The Passage; Not A Passing From One Age To Another, Or, As The People Put It, From Seven Years To Seven Years, But From Day To Day, From Minute To Minute.

After They Had Accustomed Themselves At Rome To The Spectacles Of The Slaughter Of Animals, They Proceeded To Those Of The Slaughter Of Men, To The Gladiators.

It Is Only Reasonable To Allow The Administration Of Affairs To Mothers Before Their Children Reach The Age Prescribed By Law At Which They Themselves Can Be Responsible. But That Father Would Have Reared Them Ill Who Could Not Hope That In Their Maturity They Would Have More Wisdom And Competence Than His Wife.

The Advantage Of Living Is Not Measured By Length, But By Use; Some Men Have Lived Long, And Lived Little; Attend To It While You Are In It. It Lies In Your Will, Not In The Number Of Years, For You To Have Lived Enough.

Friendship That Possesses The Whole Soul, And There Rules And Sways With An Absolute Sovereignty, Can Admit Of No Rival.

A Man Must Learn To Endure Patiently What He Cannot Avoid Conveniently.

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.

It Is Putting A Very High Price On One's Conjectures To Have Someone Roasted Alive On Their Account.

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

If I Were Of The Trade, I Should Naturalize Art As Much As They "artialize" Nature.

Whenever A New Discovery Is Reported To The World, They Say First, It Is Probably Not True, Then After, When The Truth Of The New Proposition Has Been Demonstrated Beyond Question, They Say, Yes, It May Be True, But It Is Not Important. Finally, When Sufficient Time Has Elapsed To Fully Evidence Its Importance, They Say, Yes, Surely It Is Important, But It Is No Longer New.

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

Wine Is The Benevolent God, Who Gives Back Gaiety To Men And Restores Youth To The Old.

Reason Has So Many Forms That We Do Not Know Which To Choose-experiment Has No Fewer.

Wit Is A Dangerous Weapon, Even To The Possessor, If He Knows Not How To Use It Discreetly.

He Who Remembers The Evils He Has Undergone, And Those That Have Threatened Him, And The Slight Causes That Have Changed Him From One State To Another, Prepares Himself In That Way For Future Changes And For Recognizing His Condition. The Life Of Caesar Has No More To Show Us Than Our Own; An Emperor's Or An Ordinary Man's, It Is Still A Life Subject To All Human Accidents.

The Strangest, Most Generous, And Proudest Of All Virtues Is True Courage.

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

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

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.

It Is Setting A High Value Upon Our Opinions To Roast Men And Women Alive On Account Of Them.

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

I Speak To The Paper, As I Speak To The First Person I Meet.

Certainly, If He Still Has Himself, A Man Of Understanding Has Lost Nothing.

Necessity Is A Violent School-mistress.

Malice Sucks Up The Greatest Part Of Its Own Venom, And Poisons Itself.

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