Quotes

There is no other way of guarding oneself from flatterers except letting men understand that to tell you the truth does not offend you.

I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less.

It is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.

Men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.

From my father I received life, and from my teacher I learned how to live well.

To estimate how happy a man is, one should ask not what pleases him, but what troubles him.

Solitude is the lot of all outstanding minds.

What a man is in himself, what accompanies him when he is alone, what no one can give or take away, is more essential to him than everything he has or what he may be in the eyes of others.

Bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.

The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.

The wise man aims at freedom from pain, not at pleasure.

The greatest amount of knowledge, if it has not been worked over by one’s own thinking, is worth much less than a far smaller amount that has been thoroughly thought through.