“Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.”

“When we wish to correct with advantage, and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true.”

“The war existing between the senses and reason.”

“Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.”

“All is one, all is different. How many natures exist in man? How many vocations? And by what chance does each man ordinarily choose what he has heard praised?”

“But it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and indeed the sundry contemplation of my travels, which, by often rumination, wraps me in the most humorous sadness.”

“What is addressed to us for contemplation does not threaten us, but makes us intellectual beings.”

“Love is created and preserved by intellectual analysis, for we love only that which is unique, and it belongs to contemplation, not to action, for we would not change that which we love.”