“Rivers are roads which move, and which carry us whither we desire to go.”

“The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us, and which touches us so profoundly, that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent as to knowing what it is.”

“There is a certain standard of grace and beauty which consists in a certain relation between our nature... and the thing which pleases us.”

“We are full of things which take us out of ourselves. Our instinct makes us feel that we must seek our happiness outside ourselves. Our passions impel us outside, even when no objects present themselves to excite them. External objects tempt us of themselves, and call to us, even when we are not thinking of them. And thus philosophers have said in vain, " Retire within yourselves, you will find your good there." We do not believe them, and those who believe them are the most empty and the most foolish.”

“We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.”

“We must sit by these rivers, not under or in them, but above, not standing upright, but sitting down, so that we remain humble by sitting, and safe by remaining above.”

“We desire truth and find within ourselves only uncertainty.”