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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.

-Michel De Montaigne

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Pythagoras Used To Say

Michel De Montaigne

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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.

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The Height And Value Of True Virtue Consists In The Facility, Utility, And Pleasure Of Its Exercise; So Far From Difficulty, That Boys, As Well As Men, And The Innocent As Well As The Subtle, May Make It Their Own; And It Is By Order And Good Conduct, And Not By Force, That It Is To Be Acquired.

I Would Like To Suggest That Our Minds Are Swamped By Too Much Study And By Too Much Matter Just As Plants Are Swamped By Too Much Water Or Lamps By Too Much Oil; That Our Minds, Held Fast And Encumbered By So Many Diverse Preoccupations, May Well Lose The Means Of Struggling Free, Remaining Bowed And Bent Under The Load; Except That It Is Quite Otherwise: The More Our Souls Are Filled, The More They Expand; Examples Drawn From Far-off Times Show, On The Contrary, That Great Soldiers Ad Statesmen Were Also Great Scholars.

How Often, Being Moved Under A False Cause, If The Person Offending Makes A Good Defense And Presents Us With A Just Excuse, Are We Angry Against Truth And Innocence Itself?

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

Friendship Is The Highest Degree Of Perfection In Society.

Everything Must Not Always Be Said, For That Would Be Folly.

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

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

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

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.

Man Will Rise, If God By Exception Lends Him A Hand; He Will Rise By Abandoning And Renouncing His Own Means, And Letting Himselfbe Raised And Uplifted By Purely Celestial Means.

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.

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

It Should Be Noted That Children At Play Are Not Playing About; Their Games Should Be Seen As Their Most Serious-minded Activity.

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.

Though We May Be Learned By Another's Knowledge, We Can Never Be Wise But By Our Own Experience.

It Is A Small Soul, Buried Beneath The Weight Of Affairs, That Does Not Know How To Get Clean Away From Them, That Cannot Put Them Aside And Pick Them Up Again.

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

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

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.

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.

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

To Forbid Us Anything Is To Make Us Have A Mind To 't.

Law Of Attraction

It Is Not Reasonable That Art Should Win The Place Of Honor Over Our Great And Powerful Mother Nature. We Have So Overloaded The Beauty And Richness Of Her Works By Our Inventions That We Have Quite Smothered Her.

If Atoms Do, By Chance, Happen To Combine Themselves Into So Many Shapes, Why Have They Never Combined Together To Form A House Or A Slipper? By The Same Token, Why Do We Not Believe That If Innumerable Letters Of The Greek Alphabet Were Poured All Over The Market-place They Would Eventually Happen To Form The Text Of The Iliad?

Learning Is Not To Be Tacked To The Mind, But We Must Fuse And Blend Them Together, Not Merely Giving The Mind A Slight Tincture, But A Thorough And Perfect Dye. And If We Perceive No Evident Change And Improvement, It Would Be Better To Leave It Alone; Learning Is A Dangerous Weapon, And Apt To Wound Its Master If It Be Wielded By A Feeble Hand, And By One Not Well Acquainted With Its Use.

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

Man Is Certainly Crazy. He Could Not Make A Mite, And He Makes Gods By The Dozen.

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

Ambition Is, Of All Other, The Most Contrary Humor To Solitude; And Glory And Repose Are So Inconsistent That They Cannot Possibly Inhabit One And The Same Place; And For So Much As I Understand, Those Have Only Their Arms And Legs Disengaged From The Crowd, Their Mind And Intention Remain Engaged Behind More Than Ever.

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

In Truth, Knowledge Is A Great And Very Useful Quality; Those Who Despise It Give Evidence Enough Of Their Stupidity. Yet I Do Not Set Its Value At That Extreme Measure That Some Attribute To It.

Nothing Prints More Lively In Our Minds Than Something We Wish To Forget.

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

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.

If You Want It To Be So, History Can Be A Waste Of Time; It Can Also Be, If You Want It To Be So, A Study Bearing Fruit Beyond Price.

Words Of Wisdom

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

He That I Am Reading Seems Always To Have The Most Force.

The Worthiest Man To Be Known, And For A Pattern To Be Presented To The World, He Is The Man Of Whom We Have Most Certain Knowledge. He Hath Been Declared And Enlightened By The Most Clear-seeing Men That Ever Were; The Testimonies We Have Of Him Are In Faithfulness And Sufficiency Most Admirable.

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.

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

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

Everyone Calls Barbarity What He Is Not Accustomed To.

There Is, Nevertheless, A Certain Respect And A General Duty Of Humanity That Ties Us, Not Only To Beasts That Have Life And Sense, But Even To Trees And Plants.

An Ancient Father Says That A Dog We Know Is Better Company Than A Man Whose Language We Do Not Understand.

We May So Seize On Virtue, That If We Embrace It With An Overgreedy And Violent Desire, It May Become Vicious.

I Enter Into Discussion And Argument With Great Freedom And Ease, Inasmuch As Opinion Finds Me In A Bad Soil To Penetrate And Take Deep Root In. No Propositions Astonish Me, No Belief Offends Me, Whatever Contrast It Offers To My Own. There Is No Fancy So Frivolous And So Extravagant That It Does Not Seem To Me Quite Suitable To The Production Of The Human Mind.

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.

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 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 Further Of Opinion That It Would Be Better For Us To Have [no Laws] At All Than To Have Them In So Prodigious Numbers As We Have.

Oh, What A Valiant Faculty Is Hope, That In A Mortal Subject, And In A Moment, Makes Nothing Of Usurping Infinity, Immensity, Eternity, And Of Supplying Its Masters Indigence, At Its Pleasure, With All Things He Can Imagine Or Desire!

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

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

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

There Is A Certain Consideration, And A General Duty Of Humanity, That Binds Us Not Only To The Animals, Which Have Life And Feeling, But Even To The Trees And Plants. We Owe Justice To People, And Kindness And Benevolence To All Other Creatures Who May Be Susceptible Of It. There Is Some Intercourse Between Them And Us, And Some Mutual Obligation.

The Pleasantest Things In The World Are Pleasant Thoughts, And The Great Art Of Life Is To Have As Many Of Them As Possible.

Inspirational Life

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.

A Good Marriage (if Any There Be) Refuses The Conditions Of Love And Endeavors To Present Those Of Amity.

Human Understanding Is Marvellously Enlightened By Daily Conversation With Men, For We Are, Otherwise, Compressed And Heaped Up In Ourselves, And Have Our Sight Limited To The Length Of Our Own Noses.

He Whose Mouth Is Out Of Taste Says The Wine Is Flat.

There Is No Conversation More Boring Than The One Where Everybody Agrees.

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

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.

When I Am Attached By Gloomy Thoughts, Nothing Helps Me So Much As Running To My Books. They Quickly Absorb Me And Banish The Clouds From My Mind.

If My Intentions Were Not To Be Read In My Eyes And Voice, I Should Not Have Survived So Long Without Quarrels And Without Harm, Seeing The Indiscreet Freedom With Which I Say, Right Or Wrong, Whatever Comes Into My Head.

We Must Reserve A Back Shop All Our Own Entirely Free, In Which To Establish Our Real Liberty And Our Principal Retreat And Solitude.

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

There Is Nothing Useless In Nature; Not Even Uselessness Itself

As Far As Physicians Go, Chance Is More Valuable Than Knowledge.

Truly It Is Reasonable To Make A Great Distinction Between The Faults That Come From Our Weakness And Those That Come From Our Wickedness.

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.

Not Being Able To Govern Events, I Govern Myself, And Apply Myself To Them If They Will Not Apply Themselves To Me.

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.

Time Steals Away Without Any Inconvenience.

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

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

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

It Is A Thorny Undertaking, And More So Than It Seems, To Follow A Movement So Wandering As That Of Our Mind, To Penetrate The Opaque Depths Of Its Innermost Folds, To Pick Out And Immobilize The Innumerable Flutterings That Agitate It.

I Am Myself The Matter Of My Book.

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

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.

Lay A Beam Between These Two Towers Of Such Width As We Need To Walk On: There Is No Philosophical Wisdom Of Such Great Firmness That It Can Give Us Courage To Walk On It As We Should If It Were On The Ground.

We Seek And Offer Ourselves To Be Gulled.

In General I Ask For Books That Make Use Of Learning, Not Those That Build It Up.

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.

Shame On All Eloquence Which Leaves Us With A Taste For Itself And Not For Its Substance.

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.

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.

O Human Creature,you Are The Investigator Without Knowledge, The Magistrate Without Jurisdiction, And All In All, The Fool Of The Farce.

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.

Friendship Is A Creature Formed For A Companionship Not For A Herd.

Poetry Reproduces An Indefinable Mood That Is More Amorous Than Love Itself. Venus Is Not So Beautiful All Naked, Alive, And Panting, As She Is Here In Virgil.

Few Men Have Been Admired Of Their Familiars.

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

The Sage Says That All That Is Under Heaven Incurs The Same Law And The Same Fate.

I Write To Keep From Going Mad From The Contradictions I Find Among Mankind - And To Work Some Of Those Contradictions Out For Myself.

The World Is All A Carcass And Vanity, The Shadow Of A Shadow, A Play And In One Word, Just Nothing.

Habit Is Second Nature.

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.

There Is Perhaps No More Obvious Vanity Than To Write Of It So Vainly.

Indeed, There Is No Such Thing As An Altogether Ugly Woman — Or Altogether Beautiful.

We Are More Unhappy To See People Ahead Of Us Than Happy To See People Behind Us.

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.

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.

The General Order Of Things That Takes Care Of Fleas And Moles Also Takes Care Of Men, If They Will Have The Same Patience That Fleas And Moles Have, To Leave It To Itself.

All General Judgments Are Loose And Imperfect

In Love, 'tis No Other Than Frantic Desire For That Which Flies From Us.

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

Habit Is A Second Nature.

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

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

Petty Vexations May At Times Be Petty, But Still They Are Vexations. The Smallest And Most Inconsiderable Annoyances Are The Most Piercing. As Small Letters Weary The Eye Most, So The Smallest Affairs Disturb Us Most.

I Leaf Through Books, I Do Not Study Them. What I Retain Of Them Is Something I No Longer Recognize As Anyone Else's.

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.

Who Feareth To Suffer Suffereth Already, Because He Feareth.

The Daughter-in-law Of Pythagoras Said That A Woman Who Goes To Bed With A Man Ought To Lay Aside Her Modesty With Her Skirt, And Put It On Again With Her Petticoat

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.

It Is Fear That I Stand Most In Fear Of, In Sharpness It Exceeds Every Other Feeling.

In His Commerce With Men I Mean Him To Include- And That Principally- Those Who Live Only In The Memory Of Books. By Means Of History He Will Frequent Those Great Souls Of Former Years. If You Want It To Be So, History Can Be A Waste Of Time; It Can Also Be, If You Want It To Be So, A Study Bearing Fruit Beyond Price.

Opinion Is A Powerful Party, Bold, And Without Measure.

I Neither Complain Of The Past, Nor Do I Fear The Future.

It Is Easier To Sacrifice Great Than Little Things.

Meditation Is A Powerful And Full Study As Can Effectually Taste And Employ Themselves.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Life In Itself Is Neither Good Nor Evil, It Is The Place Of Good And Evil, According To What You Make It.

Law Of Attraction

My Appetite Comes To Me While Eating.

A Little Folly Is Desirable In Him That Will Not Be Guilty Of Stupidity.

There Is Not Much Less Vexation In The Government Of A Private Family Than In The Managing Of An Entire State.

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

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 Secret Counsels Of Princes Are A Troublesome Burden To Such As Have Only To Execute Them.

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

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

Whom Conscience, Ne'er Asleep, Wounds With Incessant Strokes, Not Loud, But Deep.

Glory And Repose Are Things That Cannot Possibly Inhabit In One And The Same Place.

The Soul That Has No Established Aim Loses Itself

If Love And Ambition Should Be In Equal Balance, And Come To Jostle With Equal Force, I Make No Doubt But That The Last Would Win The Prize.

It Is Only Certain That There Is Nothing Certain, And That Nothing Is More Miserable Or More Proud Than Man.

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.

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

Pride And Curiosity Are The Two Scourges Of Our Souls. The Latter Prompts Us To Poke Our Noses Into Everything, And The Former Forbids Us To Leave Anything Unresolved And Undecided.

Is There A Polity Better Ordered, The Offices Better Distributed, And More Inviolably Observed And Maintained, Than That Of Bees?

The Most Certain Sign Of Wisdom Is A Continual Cheerfulness; Her State Is Like That Of Things In The Regions Above The Moon, Always Clear And Serene.

When I Play With My Cat, Who Knows Whether She Is Not Amusing Herself With Me More Than I With Her.

Decency, Not To Dare To Do That In Public Which It Is Decent Enough To Do In Private.

The World Is But A School Of Inquisition; It Is Not Who Shall Enter The Ring, But Who Shall Run The Best Courses.

The Strength Of Any Plan Depends On The Time. Circumstances And Things Eternally Shift And Change.

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

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.

We Are Christians By The Same Title As We Are Natives Of Perigord Or Germany.

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.

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.

Judgement Can Do Without Knowledge: But Not Knowledge Without Judgement.

Rash And Incessant Scolding Runs Into Custom And Renders Itself Despised.

If Faces Were Not Alike, We Could Not Distinguish Men From Beasts; If They Were Not Different, We Could Not Tell One Man From Another.

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

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 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.

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

My Art And Profession Is To Live.

When We Have Got It, We Want Something Else.

Each Person Calls Barbarism Whatever Is Not His Or Her Own Practice.... We May Call Cannibals Barbarians, In Respect To The Rulesof Reason, But Not In Respect To Ourselves, Who Surpass Them In Every Kind Of Barbarity.

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 Keep A Little Back Shop Where He Can Be Himself Without Reserve. In Solitude Alone Can He Know True Freedom.

It Was Truly Very Good Reason That We Should Be Beholden To God Only, And To The Favour Of His Grace, For The Truth Of So Noble A Belief, Since From His Sole Bounty We Receive The Fruit Of Immortality, Which Consists In The Enjoyment Of Eternal Beatitude.... The More We Give And Confess To Owe And Render To God, We Do It With The Greater Christianity.

Natural Inclinations Are Assisted And Reinforced By Education, But They Are Hardly Ever Altered Or Overcome.

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

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 Are All Patchwork, And So Shapeless And Diverse In Composition That Each Bit, Each Moment, Plays Its Own Game.

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

Vexations May Be Petty, But They Are Vexations Still.

What Harm Cause Not Those Huge Draughts Or Pictures Which Wanton Youth With Chalk Or Coals Draw In Each Passage, Wall Or Stairs Of Our Great Houses, Whence A Cruel Contempt Of Our Natural Store Is Bred In Them?

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

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.

Once Conform, Once Do What Others Do Because They Do It, And A Kind Of Lethargy Steals Over All The Finer Senses Of The Soul.

I Must Accommodate My History To The Hour: I May Presently Change, Not Only By Fortune, But Also By Intention.

I Do Not Teach. I Relate.

The Way Of The World Is To Make Laws, But Follow Custom.

Physicians Have This Advantage: The Sun Lights Their Success And The Earth Covers Their Failures.

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.

The Worth Of The Mind Consisteth Not In Going High, But In Marching Orderly.

We Are Nearer Neighbours To Ourselves Than Whiteness To Snow, Or Weight To Stones.

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.

What A Man Hates, He Takes Seriously.

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.

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.

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.

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