The Complete Essays Quotes

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I quote others only in order the better to express myself.

The Complete Essays

He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.

The Complete Essays

The thing I fear most is fear.

The Complete Essays

Il n'est si homme de bien, qu'il mette à l'examen des loix toutes ses actions et pensées, qui ne soit pendable dix fois en sa vie. (There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not ...

The Complete Essays

To an atheist all writings tend to atheism: he corrupts the most innocent matter with his own venom.

The Complete Essays

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.

The Complete Essays

I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.

The Complete Essays

As for dying we can only assay that once; we are all apprentices when it comes to that

The Complete Essays

[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.

The Complete Essays

We should tend our freedom wisely.

The Complete Essays

Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.

The Complete Essays

Every other knowledge is harmful to him who does not have knowledge of goodness.

The Complete Essays

Our zeal works wonders, whenever it supports our inclination toward hatred, cruelty, ambition.

The Complete Essays

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

The Complete Essays

Between ourselves, there are two things that I have always observed to be in singular accord: supercelestial thoughts and subterranean conduct.

The Complete Essays

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

The Complete Essays

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

The Complete Essays

Judgement can do without knowledge: but not knowledge without judgement.

The Complete Essays