I would travel twenty miles to listen to my bitterest enemy, if I could learn anything from him.
I perfectly agree with Malebranche and Cicero when they say that man is not born for himself, but for others.
I am confident that a bad head, but provided with aids and training, can surpass the best, just as a child can draw a straighter line with a ruler than a master can with his free hand.
Language is the best mirror of the human spirit, and with the help of a careful analysis of the meanings of words we can best understand the activity of the intellect.
In the ill-educated man, courage becomes boldness, erudition, pedantry, wit, buffoonery, simplicity, coarseness, gentleness, flattery.
The great art of learning a lot consists in taking as little as possible at once.
Probability makes up for the shortcomings of knowledge.
Will and desire are not to be confused... I want to do something that leans in one direction, while desire leans in another, completely opposite direction.
Twenty mistakes can be forgiven more easily than one disregard of the truth.
Ninety percent of the people we meet are what they are - good or bad, useful or useless - because of education.
People's actions are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
Virtue is applauded not because it is given by birth, but because it is useful.
Bad examples undoubtedly work more effectively than good rules.
An important part of ethics might be formulated with such clearness as to give the thinking man as little reason for doubt as mathematical proofs do.
From the analysis of our own person, and what we learn precisely from our own constitution, our intellect leads us to learn that indisputable and indubitable truth that there is an eternal, all-powerful, and all-knowing being. It is not important what it is called, or even "God", what is important is its existence. Truth, like gold, is not less precious just because it has recently been mined.
Courage is the guardian and support of all the other virtues, and he who lacks courage is unlikely to be firm in the discharge of duty and display all the qualities of a truly honorable man.
We are all chameleons in our own way, lending color to the things around us.
We cannot but like humane, friendly, and polite behavior wherever we meet it. A free and self-assured nature, which is not mean and narrow, which is not arrogant and impudent, untouched by any great defect, works charmingly on anyone.
Zeflemeaua is the most refined means of portraying the faults of others.
No one has ever succeeded in being so cunning as to be able to hide this quality.
Nothing penetrates so unconsciously and deeply into a man's soul as example: every evil trait which men have noticed and overlooked, inspires them only with disgust and shame when it is brought to their attention. depicts before the eyes, but to others.
To have the authority of a dictator, and to make others accept any innate right that may serve the pedagogue, is to have power over men.
Learning the sciences facilitates the development of virtues in people with good spiritual aptitudes; in people who are not endowed with such skills, it only makes them more stupid and unlearned.
The chief end of men's entry into a society is the desire to use their wealth peaceably and without danger, and the laws which regulate that society are the chief instrument and means to this end.
The well-being of the entire nation depends on the correct education of children.
Vice does not lie in having desires, but in the inability to submit them to the rules of reason; it is not a matter, therefore, of whether or not you have certain inclinations, but of the ability to govern them or to give them up.
Familiarity with the things around us extinguishes our wonder, but it does not rid us of the ignorant.
The intellect, like the eye, enables us to see and perceive all other things, but it gives no information of itself: it requires skill and effort to place it at some distance and make it its own object.
Between people of identical education there is a great inequality of opportunity.
Cunning is the same as the absence of reason: not being able to achieve its goals directly, it tries to do it by swindles and by roundabout ways; the misfortune is that cunning helps you only once, after which it becomes a hindrance.