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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.

-Michel De Montaigne

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In Order Always To

Michel De Montaigne

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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.

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More From Michel De Montaigne

Presumption Is Our Natural And Original Malady. The Most Vulnerable And Frail Of All Creatures Is Man, And At The Same Time The Most Arrogant.

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

Necessity Reconciles And Brings Men Together; And This Accidental Connection Afterward Forms Itself Into Laws.

For Truth Itself Has Not The Privilege To Be Spoken At All Times And In All Sorts.

Tis Faith Alone That Vividly And Certainly Comprehends The Deep Mysteries Of Our Religion.

What Of A Truth That Is Bounded By These Mountains And Is Falsehood To The World That Lives Beyond?

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

Since Philosophy Is The Art Which Teaches Us How To Live, And Since Children Need To Learn It As Much As We Do At Other Ages, Why Do We Not Instruct Them In It?

No Noble Thing Can Be Done Without Risks.

A Man Must Either Imitate The Vicious Or Hate Them.

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

I Find No Quality So Easy For A Man To Counterfeit As Devotion, Though His Life And Manner Are Not Conformable To It; The Essence Of It Is Abstruse And Occult, But The Appearances Easy And Showy.

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.

We Seek And Offer Ourselves To Be Gulled.

We Do Not Marry For Ourselves, Whatever We Say; We Marry Just As Much Or More For Our Posterity, For Our Family. The Practice And Benefit Of Marriage Concerns Our Race Very Far Beyond Us.

Marriage Can Be Compared To A Cage: Birds Outside It Despair To Enter, And Birds Within, To Escape.

Perhaps It Is Not Without Reason That We Attribute Facility In Belief And Conviction To Simplicity And Ignorance; For It Seems To Me I Once Learned That Belief Was Sort Of An Impression Made On Our Mind, And That The Softer It Is The Less Resistant T.

We Call Comeliness A Mischance In The First Respect, Which Belongs Principally To The Face.

If These Essays Were Worthy Of Being Judged, It Might Fall Out, In My Opinion, That They Would Not Find Much Favour, Either With Common And Vulgar Minds, Or With Uncommon And Eminent Ones: The Former Would Not Find Enough In Them, The Latter Would Find Too Much; They Might Manage To Live Somewhere In The Middle Region.

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.

We Must Learn To Suffer What We Cannot Evade; Our Life, Like The Harmony Of The World, Is Composed Of Contrary Things, And One Part Is No Less Necessary Than The Other.

Our Truth Of Nowadays Is Not What Is, But What Others Can Be Convinced Of; Just As We Call "money" Not Only That Which Is Legal, But Also Any Counterfeit That Will Pass.

If I Can, I Shall Keep My Death From Saying Anything That My Life Has Not Already Said.

The Relish Of Good And Evil Depends In A Great Measure Upon The Opinion We Have Of Them.

Cognitive Therapy

The Continuous Work Of Our Life Is To Build Death.

There Are Some Defeats More Triumphant Than Victories.

The Laws Keep Up Their Credit, Not By Being Just, But Because They Are Laws; 'tis The Mystic Foundation Of Their Authority; They Have No Other, And It Well Answers Their Purpose. They Are Often Made By Fools; Still Oftener By Men Who, Out Of Hatred To Equality, Fail In Equity; But Always By Men, Vain And Irresolute Authors.

The Births Of All Things Are Weak And Tender And Therefore We Should Have Our Eyes Intent On Beginnings.

Only The Fools Are Certain And Assured.

Since We Cannot Match It Let Us Take Our Revenge By Abusing It.

A Man Must Always Study, But He Must Not Always Go To School: What A Contemptible Thing Is An Old Abecedarian!

Women Are More Susceptible To Pain Than To Pleasure.

My Home...it Is My Retreat And Resting Place From Wars, I Try To Keep This Corner As A Haven Against The Tempest Outside, As I Do Another Corner In My Soul.

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.

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

.. 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.

Some, Either From Being Glued To Vice By A Natural Attachment, Or From Long Habit, No Longer Recognize Its Ugliness.

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.

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

Habit Is A Second Nature.

Since I Would Rather Make Of Him An Able Man Than A Learned Man, I Would Also Urge That Care Be Taken To Choose A Guide With A Well-made Rather Than A Well-filled Head.

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 Have Never Seen A Greater Monster Or Miracle In The World Than Myself.

Whoever Will Be Cured Of Ignorance, Let Him Confess It.

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.

The Truth Of These Days Is Not That Which Really Is, But What Every Man Persuades Another Man To Believe.

The Good Opinion Of The Vulgar Is Injurious.

Whatever I May Be, I Want To Be Elsewhere Than On Paper. My Art And My Industry Have Been Employed In Making Myself Good For Something; My Studies, In Teaching Me To Do, Not To Write. I Have Put All My Efforts Into Forming My Life. That Is My Trade And My Work.

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.

To Speak Less Of Oneself Than What One Really Is, Is Folly, Not Modesty; And To Take That For Current Pay Which Is Under A Man's Value, Is Pusillanimity And Cowardice.

God Might Grant Us Riches, Honours, Life, And Even Health, To Our Own Hurt; For Every Thing That Is Pleasing To Us Is Not Always Good For Us. If He Sends Us Death, Or An Increase Of Sickness, Instead Of A Cure, Vvrga Tua Et Baculus, Tuus Ipsa Me Consolata Sunt. "thy Rod And Thy Staff Have Comforted Me," He Does It By The Rule Of His Providence, Which Better And More Certainly Discerns What Is Proper For Us Than We Can Do; And We Ought To Take It In Good Part, As Coming From A Wise And Most Friendly Hand.

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.

Like The Watermen Who Advance Forward While They Look Backward.

It Is Not Without Good Reason, That He Who Has Not A Good Memory Should Never Take Upon Him The Trade Of Lying.

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

Vice Leaves Repentance In The Soul, Like An Ulcer In The Flesh, Which Is Always Scratching And Lacerating Itself; For Reason Effaces All Other Griefs And Sorrows, But It Begets That Of Repentance.

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

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.

When All Is Summed Up, A Man Never Speaks Of Himself Without Loss; His Accusations Of Himself Are Always Believed; His Praises Never.

Lost Friendship

The Utility Of Living Consists Not In The Length Of Days, But In The Use Of Time; A Man May Have Lived Long, And Yet Lived But A Little.

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

It Is Equally Pointless To Weep Because We Won't Be Alive A Hundred Years From Now As That We Were Not Here A Hundred Years Ago.

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.

Obstinacy And Contention Are Common Qualities, Most Appearing In, And Best Becoming, A Mean And Illiterate Soul.

The Perpetual Work Of Your Life Is But To Lay The Foundation Of Death.

Friendship Is The Highest Degree Of Perfection In Society.

Not Because Socrates Said So, But Because It Is In Truth My Own Disposition — And Perchance To Some Excess — I Look Upon All Men As My Compatriots, And Embrace A Pole As A Frenchman, Making Less Account Of The National Than Of The Universal And Common Bond.

I Consider Myself An Average Man, Except In The Fact That I Consider Myself An Average Man.

To Philosophize Is To Learn To Die.

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

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

No Pleasure Has Any Savor For Me Without Communication.

Without Communication

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

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

The Good, Supreme, Divine Poetry Is Above The Rules And Reason. Whoever Discerns Its Beauty With A Firm, Sedate Gaze Does Not See It, Any More Than He Sees The Splendor Of A Lightning Flash. It Does Not Persuade Our Judgement, It Ravishes And Overwhelms It.

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

A Straight Oar Looks Bent In The Water. It Matters Not Merely That We See A Thing, But How We See It.

We Are Neither Obstinately Nor Wilfully To Oppose Evils, Nor Truckle Under Them For Want Of Courage, But That We Are Naturally To Give Way To Them, According To Their Condition And Our Own, We Ought To Grant Free Passage To Diseases; And I Find They Stay Less With Me Who Let Them Alone. And I Have Lost Those Which Are Reputed The Most Tenacious And Obstinate Of Their Own Defervescence, Without Any Help Or Art, And Contrary To Their Rules. Let Us A Little Permit Nature To Take Her Own Way; She Better Understands Her Own Affairs Than We.

Oh, What A Valiant Faculty Is Hope.

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

Old Age Is A Lease Nature Only Signs As A Particular Favor, And It May Be, To One, Only In The Space Of Two Or Three Ages; And Then With A Pass To Boot, To Carry Him Through, All The Traverses And Difficulties She Has Strewed In The Way Of His Long Career.

Among The Liberal Arts, Let Us Begin With The Art That Liberates Us.

We Only Labor To Stuff The Memory, And Leave The Conscience And The Understanding Unfurnished And Void.

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

Words Of Wisdom

Death Pays All Debts.

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

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

For Among Other Things He Had Been Counseled To Bring Me To Love Knowledge And Duty By My Own Choice, Without Forcing My Will, And To Educate My Soul Entirely Through Gentleness And Freedom.

It Is Indeed The Boundary Of Life, Beyond Which We Are Not To Pass; Which The Law Of Nature Has Pitched For A Limit Not To Be Exceeded.

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.

Man Is Quite Insane. He Wouldn?t Know How To Create A Maggot, And He Creates Gods By The Dozen.

What A Man Hates, He Takes Seriously.

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

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

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

Cowardice Is The Mother Of Cruelty.

We Can Be Knowledgeable With Other Men's Knowledge, But We Cannot Be Wise With Other Men's Wisdom.

To Behave Rightly, We Ourselves Should Never Lay A Hand On Our Servants As Long As Our Anger Lasts. Things Will Seem Different To Us When We Have Quieted And Cooled Down.

I Have Ever Loved To Repose Myself, Whether Sitting Or Lying, With My Heels As High Or Higher Than My Head.

In True Education, Anything That Comes To Our Hand Is As Good As A Book: The Prank Of A Page- Boy, The Blunder Of A Servant, A Bit Of Table Talk - They Are All Part Of The Curriculum.

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

If You Have Known How To Compose Your Life, You Have Done A Great Deal More Than The Person Who Knows How To Compose A Book. You Have Done More Than The One Who Has Taken Cities And Empires.

Beauty Is The True Prerogative Of Women, And So Peculiarly Their Own, That Our Sex, Though Naturally Requiring Another Sort Of Feature, Is Never In Its Lustre But When Puerile And Beardless, Confused And Mixed With Theirs.

The Wise Man Should Withdraw His Soul Within, Out Of The Crowd, And Keep It In Freedom And Power To Judge Things Freely; But As For Externals, He Should Wholly Follow The Accepted Fashions And Forms.

Travelling Through The World Produces A Marvellous Clarity In The Judgment Of Men. We Are All Of Us Confined And Enclosed Within Ourselves, And See No Farther Than The End Of Our Nose.

We Hold Death, Poverty, And Grief For Our Principal Enemies; But This Death, Which Some Repute The Most Dreadful Of All Dreadful Things, Who Does Not Know That Others Call It The Only Secure Harbor From The Storm And Tempests Of Life, The Sovereign Good Of Nature, The Sole Support Of Liberty, And The Common And Sudden Remedy Of All Evils?

He Who Would Teach Men To Die Would Teach Them To Live.

I Would Rather Produce My Passions Than Brood Over Them At My Expense; They Grow Languid When They Have Vent And Expression. It Is Better That Their Point Should Operate Outwardly Than Be Turned Against Us.

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.

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

Is It Reasonable That Even The Arts Should Take Advantage Of And Profit By Our Natural Stupidity And Feebleness Of Mind?

Those Sciences Which Govern The Morals Of Mankind, Such As Theology And Philosophy, Make Everything Their Concern: No Activity Is So Private Or So Secret As To Escape Their Attention Or Their Jurisdiction.

I Turn My Gaze Inward. I Fix It There And Keep It Busy. I Look Inside Myself. I Continually Observe Myself.

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.

It Is Easier To Write An Indifferent Poem Than To Understand A Good One.

Kings And Philosophers Defecate, And So Do Ladies.

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

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

There Is No Passion That So Much Transports Men From Their Right Judgments As Anger. No One Would Demur Upon Punishing A Judge With Death Who Should Condemn A Criminal Upon The Account Of His Own Choler; Why Then Should Fathers And Pedants Be Any More Allowed To Whip And Chastise Children In Their Anger? It Is Then No Longer Correction Bat Revenge. Chastisement Is Instead Of Physic To Children; And Should We Suffer A Physician Who Should Be Animated Against And Enraged At His Patient?

The Least Strained And Most Natural Ways Of The Soul Are The Most Beautiful; The Best Occupations Are The Least Forced.

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

Repentance Is But A Denying Of Our Will, And An Opposition Of Our Fantasies.

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

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.

I Have Often Seen People Uncivil By Too Much Civility, And Tiresome In Their Courtesy.

A Tutor Should Not Be Continually Thundering Instruction Into The Ears Of His Pupil, As If He Were Pouring It Through A Funnel, But, After Having Put The Lad, Like A Young Horse, On A Trot, Before Him, To Observe His Paces, And See What He Is Able To Perform, Should, According To The Extent Of His Capacity, Induce Him To Taste, To Distinguish, And To Find Out Things For Himself; Sometimes Opening The Way, At Other Times Leaving It For Him To Open; And By Abating Or Increasing His Own Pace, Accommodate His Precepts To The Capacity Of His Pupil.

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.

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.

Words Repeated Again Have As Another Sound, So Another Sense.

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.

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

I Never Met A Man Who Thought His Thinking Was Faulty.

I Aim Here Only At Revealing Myself, Who Will Perhaps Be Different Tomorrow, If I Learn Something New Which Changes Me.

Whoever Will Imagine A Perpetual Confession Of Ignorance, A Judgment Without Leaning Or Inclination, On Any Occasion Whatever, Hasa Conception Of Pyrrhonism.

The Memory Represents To Us Not What We Choose But What It Pleases.

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

The World Always Looks Straights Ahead; As For Me, I Turn My Gaze Inward, I Fix It There And Keep It Busy. Everyone Looks In Front Of Him: As For Me, I Look Inside Me: I Have No Business But With Myself; I Continually Observe Myself, I Take Stock Of Myself, I Taste Myself. Others...they Always Go Forward; As For Me, I Roll About In Myself.

Lawyers And Physicians Are An Ill Provision For Any Country.

I Speak The Truth, Not My Fill Of It, But As Much As I Dare Speak; And I Dare To Do So A Little More As I Grow Old.

The First Law That Ever God Gave To Man Was A Law Of Pure Obedience; It Was A Commandment Naked And Simple, Wherein Man Had Nothing To Inquire After, Or To Dispute, Forasmuch As To Obey Is The Proper Office Of A Rational Soul, Acknowledging A Heavenly Superior And Benefactor. From Obedience And Submission Spring All Other Virtues, As All Sin Does From Self-opinion.

Fie On The Eloquence That Leaves Us Craving Itself, Not Things!

Our Speech Has Its Weaknesses And Its Defects, Like All The Rest. Most Of The Occasions For The Troubles Of The World Are Grammatical.

The Laws Of Conscience, Though We Ascribe Them To Nature, Actually Come From Custom.

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

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

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.

There Is As Much Difference Between Us And Ourselves As There Is Between Us And Others.

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

The Pleasure We Hold In Esteem For The Course Of Our Lives Ought To Have A Greater Share Of Our Time Dedicated To It; We Should Refuse No Occasion Nor Omit Any Opportunity Of Drinking, And Always Have It In Our Minds.

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.

Thus We Should Beware Of Clinging To Vulgar Opinions, And Judge Things By Reason's Way, Not By Popular Say.

Their Pupils And Their Little Charges Are Not Nourished And Fed By What They Learn: The Learning Is Passed From Hand To Hand With Only One End In View: To Show It Off, To Put Into Our Accounts To Entertain Others With It, As Though It Were Merely Counters, Useful For Totting Up And Producing Statements, But Having No Other Use Or Currency. 'apud Alios Loqui Didicerunt, Non Ipsi Secum' [they Have Learned How To Talk With Others, Not With Themselves]

A Person Is Bound To Lose When He Talks About Himself; If He Belittles Himself, He Is Believed; If He Praises Himself, He Isn't Believed.

Most Of Our Occupations Are Low Comedy.... We Must Play Our Part Duly, But As The Part Of A Borrowed Character. Of The Mask And Appearance We Must Not Make A Real Essence, Nor Of What Is Foreign What Is Our Very Own.

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

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.

The Recognition Of Virtue Is Not Less Valuable From The Lips Of The Man Who Hates It, Since Truth Forces Him To Acknowledge It; And Though He May Be Unwilling To Take It Into His Inmost Soul, He At Least Decks Himself Out In Its Trappings.

Whenever A New Finding Is Reported To The World People Say - It Is Probably Not True. Later On, When The Reliability Of A New Finding Has Been Fully Confirmed, People Say - Ok, It May Be True But It Has No Real Significance. At Last, When Even The Significance Of The Finding Is Obvious To Everybody, People Say - Well, It Might Have Some Significance, But The Idea Is Not New.

The Curiosity Of Knowing Things Has Been Given To Man For A Scourge.

Who Feareth To Suffer Suffereth Already, Because He Feareth.

Our Great And Glorious Masterpiece Is To Live Appropriately.

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

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.

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.

When I Express My Opinions It Is So As To Reveal The Measure Of My Sight Not The Measure Of The Thing.

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

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.

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.

A Wise Man Never Loses Anything, If He Has Himself.

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.

Might I Have Had My Own Will, I Would Not Have Married Wisdom Herself, If She Would Have Had Me.

I Listen With Attention To The Judgment Of All Men; But So Far As I Can Remember, I Have Followed None But My Own.

An Honest Man Is Not Accountable For The Vice And Folly Of His Trade, And Therefore Ought Not To Refuse The Exercise Of It. It Is The Custom Of His Country, And There Is Profit In It. We Must Live By The World, And Such As We Find It, So Make Use Of It.

I Conceive That Pleasures Are To Be Avoided If Greater Pains Be The Consequence, And Pains To Be Coveted That Will Terminate In Greater Pleasures.

He Who Lives Not To Others, Lives Little To Himself.

Repentance Is No Other Than A Recanting Of The Will, And Opposition To Our Fancies, Which Lead Us Which Way They Please.

To Know How To Live Is My Trade And My Art.

If Ordinary People Complain That I Speak Too Much Of Myself, I Complain That They Do Not Even Think Of Themselves.

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

If By Being Overstudious, We Impair Our Health And Spoil Our Good Humor, Let Us Give It Up.

He Loves Little Who Loves By Rule.

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

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.

He Was Doubtless An Understanding Fellow That Said, There Was No Happy Marriage But Betwixt A Blind Wife And A Deaf Husband.

I Do Not Know Whether I Would Not Like Much Better To Have Produced One Perfectly Formed Child By Intercourse With The Muses Than By Intercourse With My Wife.

... Whoever Believes Anything Esteems That It Is A Work Of Charity To Persuade Another Of It.

The Beginnings Of All Things Are Weak And Tender. We Must Therefore Be Clear-sighted In The Beginnings, For, As In Their Budding We Discern Not The Danger, So In Their Full Growth We Perceive Not The Remedy.

A Man Never Speaks Of Himself Without Losing Something. What He Says In His Disfavor Is Always Beleived, But When He Commends Himself, He Arouses Mistrust.

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.

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.

Whatever Is Enforced By Command Is More Imputed To Him Who Exacts Than To Him Who Performs.

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.

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.

The Shortest Way To Arrive At Glory Should Be To Do That For Conscience Which We Do For Glory. And The Virtue Of Alexander Appears To Me With Much Less Vigor In His Theater Than That Of Socrates In His Mean And Obscure. I Can Easily Conceive Socrates In The Place Of Alexander, But Alexander In That Of Socrates I Cannot.

Obstinacy And Heat In Argument Are Surest Proofs Of Folly. Is There Anything So Stubborn, Obstinate, Disdainful, Contemplative, Grave, Or Serious, As An Ass?

If Health And A Fair Day Smile Upon Me, I Am A Very Good Fellow; If A Corn Trouble My Toe, I Am Sullen, Out Of Humor, And Inaccessible.

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

Every One's True Worship Was That Which He Found In Use In The Place Where He Chanced To Be.

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.

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