If you want to enjoy your own value, give value to the world.
The wise say: don't judge anyone until you've been put in their shoes.
It is a pleasant thing to study nature and yourself at the same time, without forcing either nature or your own spirit, but, by a gentle mutual action, balancing them both.
The active man should concern himself with the justice of what he does; not to care about the justice of what happens.
Necessity in the sea exalts man; small necessities debase him.
People would get to know each other better if they didn't always compare themselves to each other.
As a whole, don't lose sight of the goals you set for yourself, and in detail, let yourself be guided by the circumstances.
Each person must be considered in his particularity, and, in addition to his innate nature, his environment for a long time, the opportunities he had to form, as well as the steps on which he is currently situated, must also be taken into account .
The wise man lives as he can, if he cannot as he wills. He takes as good what fate has given him, not what he has denied him.
Think like the few and speak like the many.
Act like you're being watched by everyone.
Do not embrace the bad side of a cause because the adversary has seized the good, for thus you enter the arena beaten before, and you will come out of it in shame. You can't fight well with bad weapons.
Humanity exhorts you not to promise more than you can handle, but most people get upset when you refuse a request, even if you do it rightly.
Every man's life is a whole system of attitudes, of approvals and disapprovals, of desires and repulsions... What makes an attitude necessary is the value judgment, which always implies an indication, a postulate, an order, whether it prompts or stops .
The way you do something, no matter what, marks the measure and force of your inner impressions; it derives its most immediate form from your immediate or habitual feelings, it is he who sets his stamp on the life and character of every deed.
It is easy to say that the only culprit of man's fate is himself, but how can you appreciate and weigh the part of man's fault and that of the environment in which he lives?
I cannot help thinking of the false reasoning of a great number of professed connoisseurs of men who always want to pass politeness for meanness, and good-will for hypocrisy. The true humanity, the chosen manners, the courtly attitude, which bear the proof marks of a harmony with the whole being, are at the same time a gift and a merit.
It is always hypocritical comfort to tell people that because they cannot prevent a certain thing, they ought not to consider it.
How do you reconcile the belief that the world is largely illusory with the belief that it is nonetheless essential to alleviate this illusion? How to live without falling prey to passions, without becoming indifferent?
However insignificant the man may be, do not refuse to use what is good and praiseworthy in his opinion and attitude, for we do not despise the chosen pearl if the diver who gathered it is contemptible.
Three are the best acts of kindness: sincerity, when you are angry; generosity, when you are in need; forgiveness, when you are strong.
It's naive to wonder. It's cynical not to be outraged.
Do not deal with each man as he is, but as you are. Sometimes it is more dangerous, always more worthy.
Learn not to reprimand until you are ready to correct.
The world is founded on justice, warmed by love, and enlightened by consciousness.
What you are is ultimately about you. Whatever you want, look at others too. What you do, that can watch everyone.
Get along with everyone, but make friends only with the good; so, the former will not hate you, and the others will love you.
To refuse the extremes simply because they are extremes inevitably leads to the most terrible platitude, as platitude usually is. The appeal to dialectics does not mean settling down in a comfortable middle attitude, of false wisdom, but quite the opposite, understanding, encompassing extremes that are in contradiction. The beauty, never mediocre, of dialectical understanding results not from taking the "little," petty, of each contradictory side, but from perceiving, at the same time, their extreme tension.
Behave in such a way that any of your actions become a universal rule of conduct.
Life is not still water; patience and submission to fate are not the most manly virtues.