Ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head - Montaigne

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom

The cry of the poor is is not always just, but if you don’t listen to it, you will never know what justice is

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence

History is a broken book that one must begin in the middle

The future is dark, which is the best thing the future can be, I think

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has

Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which afterwards give form

He who has access to the fountain does not go to the water-jar

An emperor knows how to govern when poets are free to make verses, people to act plays, historians to tell the truth, ministers to give advice, the poor to grumble at taxes, students to learn lessons aloud, workmen to praise their skill and seek work, people to speak of anything, and old men to find fault with everything

Everything in life must be done with reflection

The death of a civilization seldom comes from without; internal decay must weakened the fiber of a society before external influences or attacks can change its essential structure or bring it to an end

The most unfortunate of men is he who has not learned how to bear misfortune

From things that differ comes the fairest attunement

Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style

A man's shortcomings are taken from his epoch; his virtues and greatness belong to himself

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit

When I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego shall remain

The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born. That is why many of the earthly miracles have had their genesis in humble surroundings

Everything in excess is changed into its opposite

One may be sure a man has many virtues if he admires those of others

Our forefathers complained, we complain, and our descendants will complain, that morals are corrupt, that wickedness holds sway, that men are sinking deeper and deeper into sinfulness, that the condition of mankind is going from bad to worse