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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.

-Michel De Montaigne

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We Endeavor More That

Michel De Montaigne

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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.

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More From Michel De Montaigne

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

Ceremony Forbids Us To Express By Words Things That Are Lawful And Natural, And We Obey It; Reason Forbids Us To Do Things Unlawful And Ill, And Nobody Obeys It.

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.

He That First Likened Glory To A Shadow Did Better Than He Was Aware Of. They Are Both Of Them Things Excellently Vain. Glory Also, Like A Shadow, Goes Sometimes Before The Body, And Sometimes In Length Infinitely Exceeds It.

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

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

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.

I Would Rather Be An Expert On Me Than On Cicero

Nature Is A Gentle Guide, But Not More Sweet And Gentle Than Prudent And Just.

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

Take Care That Old Age Does Not Wrinkle Your Spirit Even More Than Your Face.

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.

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

How Many Worthy Men Have We Known To Survive Their Own Reputation, Who Have Seen And Suffered The Honor And Glory Most Justly Acquired In Their Youth, Extinguished In Their Own Presence?

If A Man Should Importune Me To Give A Reason Why I Loved Him, I Find It Could No Otherwise Be Expressed, Than By Making Answer: Because It Was He, Because It Was I.

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.

It Is Not My Deeds That I Write Down, It Is Myself, My Essence.

Ambition Sufficiently Plagues Her Proselytes, By Keeping Themselves Always In Show, Like The Statue Of A Public Place.

One May Disavow And Disclaim Vices That Surprise Us And Whereto Our Passions Transport Us. But Those Which By Long Habit Are Rooted In A Strong And Anchored In A Powerful Will Are Not Subject To Contradiction. Repentance Is But A Denying Of Our Will, And An Opposition Of Our Fantasies, Which Diverts Us Here And There.

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.

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.

A Man Must Become Wise At His Own Expense.

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

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

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?

There Is Indeed A Certain Sense Of Gratification When We Do A Good Deed That Gives Us Inward Satisfaction, And A Generous Pride That Accompanies A Good Conscience…these Testimonies Of A Good Conscience Are Pleasant; And Such A Natural Pleasure Is Very Beneficial To Us; It Is The Only Payment That Can Never Fail. “on Repentance

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.

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.

A Man May Be Humble Through Vainglory.

The First Lessons With Which We Should Irrigate His Mind Should Be Those Which Teach Him To Know Himself, And To Know How To Die ... And To Live.

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

Only The Fools Are Certain And Assured.

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

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

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

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

Those Who Make A Practice Of Comparing Human Actions Are Never So Perplexed As When They Try To See Them As A Whole And In The Same Light; For They Commonly Contradict Each Other So Strangely That It Seems Impossible That They Have Come From The Same Shop.

While Our Pulse Beats And We Feel Emotion, Let Us Put Off The Business. Things Will Truly Seem Different To Us When We Have Quieted And Cooled Down. It Is Passion That Is In Command At First, It Is Passion That Speaks, It Is Not We Ourselves.

Vexations May Be Petty, But They Are Vexations Still.

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

Men Are Nothing Until They Are Excited.

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.

Any Person Of Honor Chooses Rather To Lose His Honor Than To Lose His Conscience.

To Philosophize Is To Learn To Die.

The Entire Lower World Was Created In The Likeness Of The Higher World. All That Exists In The Higher World Appears Like An Image In This Lower World; Yet All This Is But One.

But Sure There Is Need Of Other Remedies Than Dreaming, A Weak Contention Of Art Against Nature.

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.

Our Wisdom And Deliberation For The Most Part Follow The Lead Of Chance.

A Man Should Not So Much Respect What He Eats, As With Whom He Eats.

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

Poverty Of Goods Is Easily Cured; Poverty Of Soul, Impossible.

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

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.

An Untempted Woman Cannot Boast Of Her Chastity.

There Is Nothing More Notable In Socrates Than That He Found Time, When He Was An Old Man, To Learn Music And Dancing, And Thought It Time Well Spent.

I Do Myself A Greater Injury In Lying Than I Do Him Of Whom I Tell A Lie.

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

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.

We Should Spread Joy, But, As Far As We Can, Repress Sorrow.

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

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

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.

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.

It Is Probable That The Principal Credit Of Miracles, Visions, Enchantments, And Such Extraordinary Occurrences Comes From The Power Of Imagination, Acting Principally Upon The Minds Of The Common People, Which Are Softer.

The Easy, Gentle, And Sloping Path . . . Is Not The Path Of True Virtue. It Demands A Rough And Thorny Road.

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

Satisfaction In Life

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

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

Marriage Is Like A Cage; One Sees The Birds Outside Desperate To Get In, And Those Inside Equally Desperate To Get Out.

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?

There Is A Sort Of Gratification In Doing Good Which Makes Us Rejoice In Ourselves.

Love Is Like Playing The Piano. First You Must Learn To Play By The Rules, Then You Must Forget The Rules And Play From Your Heart. If I Were Pressed To Say Why I Loved Him, I Feel That My Only Reply Could Be: Because It Was He, Because It Was I.

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.

There Is No Passion So Much Transports The Sincerity Of Judgment As Doth Anger

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

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.

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

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

There Is Not One Of Us That Would Not Be Worse Than Kings, If So Continually Corrupted As They Are With A Sort Of Vermin Called Flatterers.

Nature Has, Herself, I Fear, Imprinted In Man A Kind Of Instinct To Inhumanity.

There Is No Virtue Which Does Not Rejoice A Well-descended Nature; There Is A Kind Of I Know Not What Congratulation In Well-doing, That Gives Us An Inward Satisfaction, And A Certain Generous Boldness That Accompanies A Good Conscience.

Congratulations

I Enjoy Books As Misers Enjoy Treasures, Because I Know I Can Enjoy Them Whenever I Please.

Oh, What A Valiant Faculty Is Hope.

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

How Many Condemnations I Have Witnessed More Criminal Than The Crime!

The Worst Condition Of Humans Is When They Lose Knowledge And Control Of Themselves.

Not Because Socrates Said So,... I Look Upon All Men As My Compatriots.

Lawyers And Physicians Are An Ill Provision For Any Country.

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.

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.

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.

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

Why Do People Respect The Package Rather Than The Man?

Other Passions Have Objects To Flatter Them, And Seem To Content And Satisfy Them For A While; There Is Power In Ambition, Pleasure In Luxury, And Pelf In Covetousness; But Envy Can Gain Nothing But Vexation.

Que Sçais-je?" (what Do I Know?)

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.

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

It Is A Stupid Presumption To Go About Despising And Condemning As False Anything That Seems To Us Improbable; This Is A Common Fault In Those Who Think They Have More Intelligence Than The Crowd.

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

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.

Memory Is A Wonderfully Useful Tool, And Without It Judgement Does Its Work With Difficulty; It Is Entirely Lacking In Me.... Now,the More I Distrust My Memory, The More Confused It Becomes. It Serves Me Better By Chance Encounter; I Have To Solicit It Nonchalantly. For If I Press It, It Is Stunned; And Once It Has Begun To Totter, The More I Probe It, The More It Gets Mixed Up And Embarrassed. It Serves Me At Its Own Time, Not At Mine.

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.

I Determine Nothing; I Do Not Comprehend Things; I Suspend Judgment; I Examine.

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

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.

Whatever Can Be Done Another Day Can Be Done Today.

I Have A Vocabulary All My Own. I "pass The Time" When It Is Wet And Disagreeable. When It Is Fine I Do Not Wish To Pass It; I Ruminate It And Hold On To It. We Should Hasten Over The Bad, And Settle Upon The Good.

Teach Him A Certain Refinement In Sorting Out And Selecting His Arguments, With An Affection For Relevance And So For Brevity. Above All Let Him Be Taught To Throw Down His Arms And Surrender To Truth As Soon As He Perceives It, Whether The Truth Is Born At His Rival's Doing Or Within Himself From Some Change In His Ideas.

Words Of Wisdom

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

And As Hearbes And Trees Are Bettered And Fortified By Being Transplanted, So Formes Of Speach Are Embellished And Graced By Variation.... As In Our Ordinary Language, We Shall Sometimes Meete With Excellent Phrases, And Quaint Metaphors, Whose Blithnesse Fadeth Through Age, And Colour Is Tarnish By To Common Using Them.

To Know Much Is Often The Cause Of Doubting More.

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

If Others Examined Themselves Attentively, As I Do, They Would Find Themselves, As I Do, Full Of Inanity And Nonsense. Get Rid Of It I Cannot Without Getting Rid Of Myself.

There Is No Pleasure To Me Without Communication: There Is Not So Much As A Sprightly Thought Comes Into My Mind That It Does Not Grieve Me To Have Produced Alone, And That I Have No One To Tell It To.

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

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!

Few Men Have Been Admired Of Their Familiars.

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.

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.

Health Is A Precious Thing, And The Only One, In Truth, Meriting That A Man Should Lay Out Not Only His Time, Sweat, Labor And Goods, But Also Life Itself To Obtain It.

As For Extraordinary Things, All The Provision In The World Would Not Suffice.

Extraordinary Things

The Beauty Of Stature Is The Only Beauty Of Men.

Unless A Man Feels He Has A Good Enough Memory, He Should Never Venture To Lie.

Wonder Is The Foundation Of All Philosophy, Inquiry The Progress, Ignorance The End.

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

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.

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

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

Disappointment And Feebleness Imprint Upon Us A Cowardly And Valetudinarian Virtue.

Books Are Pleasant, But If By Being Over-studious We Impair Our Health And Spoil Our Good Humour, Two Of The Best Things We Have, Let Us Give It Over. I, For My Part, Am One Of Those Who Think No Fruit Derived From Them Can Recompense So Great A Loss.

A Young Man Ought To Cross His Own Rules, To Awake His Vigor, And To Keep It From Growing Faint And Rusty. And There Is No Course Of Life So Weak And Sottish As That Which Is Carried On By Rule And Discipline.

I Am Myself The Matter Of My Book.

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

It Is The Mind That Maketh Good Or Ill, That Maketh Wretch Or Happy, Rich Or Poor.

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!

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

Cognitive Therapy

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

The Most Universal Quality Is Diversity.

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.

As Soon As Women Become Ours We Are No Longer Theirs.

Business In A Certain Sort Of Men Is A Mark Of Understanding, And They Are Honored For It. Their Souls Seek Repose In Agitation, As Children Do By Being Rocked In A Cradle. They May Pronounce Themselves As Serviceable To Their Friends As Troublesome To Themselves. No One Distributes His Money To Others, But Every One Therein Distributes His Time And His Life. There Is Nothing Of Which We Are So Prodigal As Of Those Two Things, Of Which To Be Thrifty Would Be Both Commendable And Useful.

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.

Some Men Seem Remarkable To The World In Whom Neither Their Wives Nor Their Valets Saw Anything Extraordinary. Few Men Have Been Admired By Their Servants.

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.

Don't Discuss Yourself, For You Are Bound To Lose; If You Belittle Yourself, You Are Believed; If You Praise Yourself, You Are Disbelieved.

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

I Give My Opinion Not As Being Good, But As Being My Own.

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

In The Education Of Children There Is Nothing Like Alluring The Interest And Affection; Otherwise You Only Make So Many Asses Laden With Books.

Death, They Say, Acquits Us Of All Obligations.

My Art And Profession Is To Live.

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

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.

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.

We Commend A Horse For His Strength, And Sureness Of Foot, And Not For His Rich Caparisons; A Greyhound For His Share Of Heels, Not For His Fine Collar; A Hawk For Her Wing, Not For Her Jesses And Bells. Why, In Like Manner, Do We Not Value A Man For What Is Properly His Own? He Has A Great Train, A Beautiful Palace, So Much Credit, So Many Thousand Pounds A Year, And All These Are About Him, But Not In Him.

The Corruption Of The Age Is Made Up By The Particular Contribution Of Every Individual Man; Some Contribute Treachery, Others Injustice, Atheism, Tyranny, Avarice, Cruelty, According To Their Power.

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

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

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.

Now, Of All The Benefits That Virtue Confers Upon Us, The Contempt Of Death Is One Of The Greatest.

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

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

As For Our Pupils Talk, Let His Virtue And His Sense Of Right And Wrong Shine Through It And Have No Guide But Reason. Make Him Understand That Confessing An Error Which He Discovers In His Own Argument Even When He Alone Has Noticed It Is An Act Of Justice And Integrity, Which Are The Main Qualities He Pursues; Stubbornness And Rancour Are Vulgar Qualities, Visible In Common Souls Whereas To Think Again, To Change One's Mind And To Give Up A Bad Case On The Heat Of The Argument Are Rare Qualities Showing Strength And Wisdom.

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

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

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.

'as A Man Who Knows How To Make His Education Into A Rule Of Life Not A Means Of Showing Off; Who Can Control Himself And Obey His Own Principles.' The True Mirror Of Our Discourse Is The Course Of Our Lives.

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

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

Tis The Taste Of Effeminacy That Disrelishes Ordinary And Accustomed Things.

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

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

It Is The Part Of Cowardliness, And Not Of Virtue, To Seek To Squat Itself In Some Hollow Lurking Hole, Or To Hide Herself Under Some Massive Tomb, Thereby To Shun The Strokes Of Fortune.

To Make Judgements About Great And Lofty Things, A Soul Of The Same Stature Is Needed; Otherwise We Ascribe To Them That Vice Which Is Our Own.

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

As Far As I Am Concerned, No Road That Would Lead Us To Health Is Either Arduous Or Expensive.

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

Virtue Cannot Be Followed But For Herself, And If One Sometimes Borrows Her Mask To Some Other Purpose, She Presently Pulls It Away Again.

So It Is With Minds. Unless You Keep Them Busy With Some Definite Subject That Will Bridle And Control Them, They Throw Themselves In Disorder Hither And Yon In The Vague Field Of Imagination... And There Is No Mad Or Idle Fancy That They Do Not Bring Forth In The Agitation.

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

Friendship Is The Highest Degree Of Perfection In Society.

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

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.

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

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

Custom Is A Second Nature, And No Less Powerful.

The Most Unhappy And Frail Creatures Are Men And Yet They Are The Proudest.

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

The Customs And Practices Of Life In Society Sweep Us Along.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

A Man Must Either Imitate The Vicious Or Hate Them.

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