“The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.”

“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief”

“It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.”

“Let us assume that entertainment is the sole end of reading; even so I think you would hold that no mental employment is so broadening to the sympathies or so enlightening to the understanding. Other pursuits belong not to all times, all ages, all conditions; but this gives stimulus to our youth and diversion to our old age; this adds a charm to success, and offers a haven of consolation to failure. Through the night-watches, on all our journeyings, and in our hours of ease, it is our unfailing companion.”

“Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character. He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else's traits might suit him better. The more definitely his own a man's character is, the better it fits him.”

“They who say that we should love our fellow-citizens but not foreigners, destroy the universal brotherhood of mankind, with which benevolence and justice would perish forever”

“Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.”