“I had rather complain of ill-fortune than be ashamed of victory.”

“I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.”

“If ordinary people complain that I speak too much of myself, I complain that they do not even think of themselves.”

“When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not playing with me rather than I with her?”

“If the pupil proves to be of so perverse a disposition that he would rather listen to some idle tale than to the account of a glorious voyage or to a wise conversation, when he hears one; if he turns away from the drum-beat that awakens young ardour in his comrades, to listen to another tattoo that summons him to a display of juggling; if he does not fervently feel it to be pleasanter and sweeter to return from a wrestling-match, dusty but victorious, with the prize in his hand, than from a game of tennis or a ball, I can see no other remedy that for his tutor to strangle him before it is too late, if there are no witnesses.”

“Why do people respect the package rather than the man?”

“If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.”