The quote database

The present alone is true and actual; it is the only time which possesses full reality, and our existence lies in it exclusively.

In old age it is indeed a consolation to think that the work of life is over and done with.

Competence to age is supplementary youth; a sorry supplement indeed, but I fear the best that is to be had.

A thing was worth buying then, when we felt the money that we paid for it.

you would wonder at seeing how possible it is to live as secludedly in the midst of a multitude as in the centre of solitude

The forest is an eternal mediator between winds and gravity in their never-ending struggle for the possession of the waters.

We may hasten or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation.

While I silently ponder on that Change wrought in me, I find no Language equal to it, nor any Means to convey to another a clear Idea of it.

Observe continually that all things exist in change; and keep this thought ever with you, that Nature loves nothing more than changing what things now are, and making others like them.

The present moment is the same for all men, and their loss, therefore, is equal, for it is clear that what they lose in death is but a fleeting instant of time.

An actor, in order to earn approval, is not bound to perform the play from beginning to end; let him only satisfy the audience in whatever act he appears.

Now, old age is as it were the playing out of the drama, the full fatigue of which we should shun, especially when we also feel that we have had more than enough of it.

In such cases friendships should be allowed to die out gradually by an intermission of intercourse.

This ripeness is so delightful to me, that, as I approach nearer to death, I seem as it were to be sighting land, and to be coming to port at last after a long voyage.

as the strings of the bow and lyre are alternately tightened and relaxed, so is it with the order of the world; in human affairs there is nothing pure and without alloy

the foolish overlook and neglect present blessings, through their thoughts being ever intent on the future; but the wise make the past clearly present to them through memory

As therefore the shoe is shaped by the foot, and not the foot by the shoe, so does the disposition make the life similar to itself.

Their once flaming regard is sobered by time in either breast, and losing in violence what it gains in extent, it becomes a thorough good understanding.

A watched pot never boils.

The pure men of old slept without dreams, and waked without anxiety.