Philosopher

Wit is a dangerous weapon, even to the possessor, if he knows not how to use it discreetly.

Every one rushes elsewhere and into the future, because no one wants to face one's own inner self.

I put forward formless and unresolved notions, as do those who publish doubtful questions to debate in the schools, not to establish the truth but to seek it.

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.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

It is a sign of contraction of the mind when it is content, or of weariness. A spirited mind never stops within itself; it is always aspiring and going beyond its strength.

We can be knowledgable with other men's knowledge but we cannot be wise with other men's wisdom.

There is no passion so contagious as that of fear.

Unless a man feels he has a good enough memory, he should never venture to lie.

I speak the truth not so much as I would, but as much as I dare, and I dare a little more as I grow older.

A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband.

If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it.

If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.

Fame and tranquility can never be bedfellows.

Any person of honor chooses rather to lose his honor than to lose his conscience.

I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better.

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.

Fortune, seeing that she could not make fools wise, has made them lucky.