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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.

-Michel De Montaigne

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We Must Learn To

Michel De Montaigne

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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.

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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.

Virtue Shuns Ease As A Companion. It Demands A Rough And Thorny Path.

Every Abridgement Of A Good Book Is A Fool Abridged.

Habit Is Second Nature.

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

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

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

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.

Our Skin Is Provided As Adequately As Theirs With Endurance Against The Assaults Of The Weather: Witness So Many Nations Who Have Not Yet Tried The Use Of Any Clothes. Our Ancient Gauls Wore Hardly Any Clothes; Nor Do The Irish, Our Neighbors, Under So Cold A Sky.

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.

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.

Most Men Are Rich In Borrowed Sufficiency: A Man May Very Well Say A Good Thing, Give A Good Answer, Cite A Good Sentence, Without At All Seeing The Force Of Either The One Or The Other.

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

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

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

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?

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.

There Are As Many And Innumerable Degrees Of Wit, As There Are Cubits Between This And Heaven.

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.

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.

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

To Know Much Is Often The Cause Of Doubting More.

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

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.

All The Opinions In The World Point Out That Pleasure Is Our Aim.

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.

To Understand Via The Heart Is Not To Understand.

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.

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

And If Nobody Reads Me, Shall I Have Wasted My Time, When I Have Beguiled So Many Idle Hours With Such Pleasant And Profitable Reflections?

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.

Kings And Philosophers Defecate, And So Do Ladies.

No Man Profiteth But By The Loss Of Others.

[i]n My Country, When They Would Say A Man Has No Sense, They Say, Such An One Has No Memory; And When I Complain Of The Defect Of Mine, They Do Not Believe Me, And Reprove Me, As Though I Accused Myself For A Fool: Not Discerning The Difference Betwixt Memory And Understanding, Which Is To Make Matters Still Worse For Me. But They Do Me Wrong; For Experience, Rather, Daily Shows Us, On The Contrary, That A Strong Memory Is Commonly Coupled With Infirm Judgment.

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

Children's Games Are Hardly Games. Children Are Never More Serious Than When They Play.

Whether The Events In Our Life Are Good Or Bad, Greatly Depends On The Way We Perceive Them.

Law Of Attraction

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

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

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

I Consider It Equal Injustice To Set Our Heart Against Natural Pleasures And To Set Our Heart Too Much On Them. We Should Neither Pursue Them, Nor Flee Them; We Should Accept Them.

I Had Rather Fashion My Mind Than Furnish It.

Nothing Is So Firmly Believed As What We Least Know.

Painting Myself For Others, I Have Painted My Inward Self With Colors Clearer Than My Original Ones. I Have No More Made My Book Than My Book Has Made Me--a Book Consubstantial With Its Author, Concerned With My Own Self, An Integral Part Of My Life; Not Concerned With Some Third-hand, Extraneous Purpose, Like All Other Books.

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

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

Lost Friendship

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

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

Words Of Wisdom

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.

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

Seeing That The Senses Cannot Decide Our Dispute, Being Themselves Full Of Uncertainty, We Must Have Recourse To Reason; There Is No Reason But Must Be Built Upon Another Reason: So Here We Are Retreating Backwards To Infinity.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Learning Is A Good Medicine: But No Medicine Is Powerful Enough To Preserve Itself From Taint And Corruption Independently Of Defects In The Jar That It Is Kept In. One Man Sees Clearly But Does Not See Straight: Consequently He Sees What Is Good But Fails To Follow It; He Sees Knowledge And Does Not Use It.

..a Man May Live Long, Yet Live Very Little. Satisfaction In Life Depends Not On The Number Of Your Years, But On Your Will.

Satisfaction In 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.

We Cannot Be Held To What Is Beyond Our Strength And Means; For At Times The Accomplishment And Execution May Not Be In Our Power, And Indeed There Is Nothing Really In Our Own Power Except The Will: On This Are Necessarily Based And Founded All The Principles That Regulate The Duty Of Man.

The Most Certain Sign Of Wisdom Is Cheerfulness.

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.

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

No Wind Serves Him Who Addresses His Voyage To No Certain Port.

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.

The Beautiful Souls Are They That Are Universal, Open, And Ready For All Things.

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

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

It Needs Good Management To Enjoy Life. I Enjoy It Twice As Much As Others, For The Measure Of Enjoyment Depends On The Greater Or Less Attention That We Give To It...the Shorter My Possession Of Life The Deeper And Fuller I Must Make It.

Marriage Has, For Its Share, Usefulness, Justice, Honour, And Constancy; A Stale But More Durable Pleasure. Love Is Grounded On Pleasure Alone, And It Is Indeed More Gratifying To The Senses, Keener And More Acute; A Pleasure Stirred And Kept Alive By Difficulties. There Must Be A Sting And A Smart In It. It Ceases To Be Love If It Has No Shafts And No Fire.

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

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.

Covetousness Is Both The Beginning And The End Of The Devil's Alphabet - The First Vice In Corrupt Nature That Moves, And The Last Which Dies.

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

It Makes Me Hate Accepting Things That Are Probable When They Are Held Up Before Me As Infallibly True. I Prefer These Words Which Tone Down And Modify The Hastiness Of Our Propositions: "perhaps, In Some Sort, Some, They Say, I Think," And The Like.

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

It Is A Disaster That Wisdom Forbids You To Be Satisfied With Yourself And Always Sends You Away Dissatisfied And Fearful, Whereas Stubbornness And Foolhardiness Fill Their Hosts With Joy And Assurance.

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

Let [children] Be Able To Do All Things, And Love To Do Only The Good.

A Man Must Either Imitate The Vicious Or Hate Them.

It Is Very Easy To Accuse A Government Of Imperfection, For All Mortal Things Are Full Of It.

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

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

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.

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

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

There Is No Greater Enemy To Those Who Would Please Than Expectation.

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.

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

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

Virtue Rejects Facility To Be Her Companion. She Requires A Craggy, Rough And Thorny Way.

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

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

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.

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.

I Am Much Afraid That We Shall Have Very Greatly Hastened The Decline And Ruin Of The New World By Our Contagion, And That We Willhave Sold It Our Opinions And Our Arts Very Dear.

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

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.

Few Men Have Been Admired Of Their Familiars.

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.

Ignorance Is The Softest Pillow On Which A Man Can Rest His Head.

Wonder Is The Foundation Of All Philosophy; Research, The Progress; Ignorance, The End. There Is, By Heavens, A Strong And Generous Kind Of Ignorance That Yields Nothing, For Honour And Courage, To Knowledge: An Ignorance To Conceive Which Needs No Less Knowledge Than To Conceive Knowledge.

We Every Day And Every Hour Say Things Of Another That We Might More Properly Say Of Ourselves, Could We But Apply Our Observations To Our Own Concerns.

Example Is A Bright Looking-glass, Universal And For All Shapes To Look Into.

The Honor We Receive From Those That Fear Us, Is Not Honor; Those Respects Are Paid To Royalty And Not To Me.

What We Are Told Of The Inhabitants Of Brazil, That They Never Die But Of Old Age, Is Attributed To The Tranquility And Serenity Of Their Climate; I Rather Attribute It To The Tranquility And Serenity Of Their Souls, Which Are Free From All Passion, Thought, Or Any Absorbing And Unpleasant Labors. Those People Spend Their Lives In An Admirable Simplicity And Ignorance, Without Letters, Without Law, Without King, Without Any Manner Of Religion.

We Seem Ambitious God's Whole Work To Undo. ...with New Diseases On Ourselves We War, And With New Physic, A Worse Engine Far.

Intelligence Is Required To Be Able To Know That A Man Knows Not.

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

Others Form Man; I Tell Of Him, And Portray A Particular One, Very Ill-formed, Whom I Should Really Make Very Different From Whathe Is If I Had To Fashion Him Over Again. But Now It Is Done.

Lend Yourself To Others, But Give Yourself To Yourself.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

A Well-bred Man Is Always Sociable And Complaisant.

Those That Will Combat Use And Custom By The Strict Rules Of Grammar Do But Jest

Things Are Not Bad In Themselves, But Our Cowardice Makes Them So.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Our Zeal Works Wonders, Whenever It Supports Our Inclination Toward Hatred, Cruelty, Ambition.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

The Premeditation Of Death Is The Premeditation Of Liberty; He Who Has Learnt To Die Has Forgot To Serve.

Not Being Able To Govern Events, I Govern Myself.

Law Of Attraction

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.

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?

Valor Is Stability, Not Of Legs And Arms, But Of Courage And The Soul.

Excellent Memories Are Often Coupled With Feeble Judgments.

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

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

The Diversity Of Physical Arguments And Opinions Embraces All Sorts Of Methods.

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.

There Are No Truths, Only Moments Of Claryty Passing For Answers.

There Never Were, In The World, Two Opinions Alike, No More Than Two Hairs, Or Two Grains; The Most Universal Quality Is Diversity.

True Freedom Is To Have Power Over Oneself For Everything.

It Is Not A Mind, It Is Not A Body That We Educate, But It Is A Man, And We Must Not Make Two Parts Of Him.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We Are All Of Us Richer Than We Think We Are.

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

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

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.

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

There Is Nothing In Which A Horse's Power Is Better Revealed Than In A Neat, Clean Stop.

The Whole Idea We Have For Their Chastity Is Ridiculous. They Would Have To Become Numb And Invisible To Please Us. I Don't Know Whether The Exploits Of Alexander And Caesar Really Surpass The Resolution Of A Beautiful Young Woman, Bred Up In The Light And Commerce Of Our Society, Who Still Keeps Herself Whole. There Is No Doing So Hard As Not Doing.

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

I Quote Others Only In Order The Better To Express Myself.

Diogenes Was Asked What Wine He Liked Best; And He Answered As I Would Have Done When He Said, "somebody Else's".

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

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.

The Most Regular And Most Perfect Soul In The World Has But Too Much To Do To Keep Itself Upright From Being Overthrown By Its Own Weakness.

The Continuous Work Of Our Life Is To Build Death.

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.

A Man Has Need Of Tough Ears To Hear Himself Fairly Judged.

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

A Liar Would Be Brave Toward God, While He Is A Coward Toward Men; For A Lie Faces God, And Shrinks From Man.

A Learned Man Is Not Learned In All Things; But A Sufficient Man Is Sufficient Throughout, Even To Ignorance Itself.

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

I Would Rather Be An Expert On Me Than On Cicero

Habituation Puts To Sleep The Eye Of Our Judgment.

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.

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

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?

Lawyers And Physicians Are An Ill Provision For Any Country.

I Quote Others In Order To Better Express Myself.

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

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

Desire And Hope Will Push Us On Toward The Future.

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

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

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

An Untempted Woman Cannot Boast Of Her Chastity.

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

No Wonder, Said An Ancient, That Chance Has So Much Power Over Us, Since It Is By Chance That We Live.

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

Greatness Of Soul Consists Not So Much In Soaring High And In Pressing Forward, As In Knowing How To Adapt And Limit Oneself.

When I Play With My Cat, Who Knows Whether I Do Not Make Her More Sport Than She Makes Me?

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