1. "All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate."
2. “All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me."
3. “A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.”
4. “A man must keep a little back shop where he can be himself without reserve. In solitude alone can he know true freedom.”
5. "A man should ever be ready booted to take his journey."
6. “Anyone who does not feel sufficiently strong in memory should not meddle with lying.”
7. “A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself."
8. “A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.”
9. "But sure there is need of other remedies than dreaming, a weak contention of art against nature."
10. “Don't discuss yourself, for you are bound to lose; if you belittle yourself, you are believed; if you praise yourself, you are disbelieved.”
11. “Even on the most exalted throne in the world we are only sitting on our own bottom.”
12. “Everyone may speak truly, but to speak logically, prudently, and adequately is a talent few possess.”
13. "Example is a bright looking-glass, universal and for all shapes to look into."
14. "I know what I am fleeing from, but not what I am in search of."
15. "Have you known how to take rest? You have done more than he who hath taken empires and cities."
16. “He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.”
17. “He who is not sure of his memory, should not undertake the trade of lying.”
18. “How many things which served us yesterday as articles of faith, are fables for us today.”
19. “I believe it to be true that Dreams are the true Interpreters of our Inclinations; but there is Art required to sort and understand them.”
20. “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.”
21. "I consider myself an average man, except in the fact that I consider myself an average man."
22. “I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.”
23. “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. There is beyond all that I am able to say, I know not what inexplicable and fated power that brought on this union.”
24. "I find that the best virtue I have has in it some tincture of vice."
25. “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'.”
26. ”If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”
27. “I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.”
28. ”I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.”
29. “I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”
30. ”I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
31. “In nine lifetimes, you'll never know as much about your cat as your cat knows about you.”
32. "I see men ordinarily more eager to discover a reason for things than to find out whether the things are so."
33. “I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more I grow older.”
34. "It happens as one sees in cages: the birds who are outside despair of ever getting in, and those within are equally desirous of getting out"
35. "It is good to rub and polish our brain against that of others."
36. “It [marriage] is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.”
37. “It should be noted that the games of children are not games, and must be considered as their most serious actions.”
38. “It might well be said of me that here I have merely made up a bunch of other men's flowers, and provided nothing of my own but the string to bind them.”
39. “I want death to find me planting my cabbages, but caring little for it, and even less for my imperfect garden.”
40. ”Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.”
41. “Let the man who is in search of knowledge fish for it where it lies; there is nothing that I lay less claim to. These are my fancies, in which I make no attempt to convey information about things, only about myself. I may have some objective knowledge one day, or may perhaps have had it in the past when I happened to light on passages that explained things. But I have forgotten it all; for though I am a man of some reading, I am one who retains nothing.”
42. "Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think."
43. “Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.”
44. “Life is a dream; when we sleep we are awake, and when awake we sleep.”
45. “Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozens.”
46. “Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.”
47. “No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately.”
48. ”Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.”
49. “Nothing is so firmly believed as what is least known.”
50. “Not merely giving the mind a slight tincture but a thorough and perfect dye.”
51. “No wind serves him who addresses his voyage to no certain port.”
52. “One may be humble out of pride.”
53. “One must always have one's boots on and be ready to go.”
54. "Philosophy is doubt."
55. “Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.”
56. “Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it.”
57. ”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.”
58. "Some impose upon the world that they believe that which they do not; others, more in number, make themselves believe that they believe, not being able to penetrate into what it is to believe."
59. “The clatter of arms drowns the voice of the law.”
60. “The conviction of wisdom is the plague of man.”
61. “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.”
62. “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.”
63. “The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.”
64. “The greatest thing in the world is for a man to know how to be himself.”
65. “The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be self-sufficient.”
66. ”The man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears.”
67. "The memory represents to us not what we choose but what it pleases."
68. “The mind is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not discreetly how to use it.”
69. “The most evident token and apparent sign of true wisdom is a constant and unconstrained rejoicing.”
70. "The plainest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene."
71. ”There are defeats more triumphant than victories.”
72. ”There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.
73. “There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.”
74. “There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws would not deserve hanging tem times in his life.”
75. “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.”
76. “There is nothing I desire more to be informed of, than the death of men: that is to say, what words, what countenance, and what face they show at their death.... Were I a composer of books, I would keep a register, commented of the diverse deaths, which in teaching men to die, should after teach them to live.”
77. "There never was in the world two opinions alike, no more than two hairs or two grains; the most universal quality is diversity."
78. “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.”
79. “The value of life lies, not in the length of days, but in the use we make of them; a man may live long, yet live very little. Satisfaction in life depends not on the number of your years, but on your will.”
80. "The way of the world is to make laws, but follow custom."
81. “The world is but a school of inquiry.”
82. “Those that will combat use and custom by the strict rules of grammar do but jest.”
83. ”Those who have compared our life to a dream were right.... We sleeping wake, and waking sleep.”
84. “To know how to live is my trade and my art.”
85. “To philosophize is to doubt.”
86. “Virtue will have nothing to do with ease . . . It demands a steep and thorny road.”
87. “We are all convention; convention carries us away, and we neglect the substance of things. . . / We dare not call our parts by their right names, but are not afraid to use them for every sort of debauchery.”
88. ”We can be Knowledgeable with other men's knowledge, but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.”
89. “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.”
90. "When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not more of a pastime to her than she is to me?"
91. “Wherever your life ends, it is all there. 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.”
92. “Why is it that our tongue, so simple for other purposes, becomes obscure and unintelligible in wills and contracts?”
93. "Why may not a goose say thus: “All the parts of the universe I have an interest in: the earth serves me to walk upon, the sun to light me; the stars have their influence upon me; I have such an advantage by the winds and such by the waters; there is nothing that yon heavenly roof looks upon so favourably as me. I am the darling of Nature! Is it not man that keeps and serves me?”"
