All the glory that I aspire to in my
life is to have lived it tranquilly...according to me. Since
philosophy has not been able to find away to tranquillity that is
suitable to all, let everyone seek it individually. [P 471]
The greatest thing in the world is to
know how to belong to oneself. [p 178]
On the one hand Nature pushes us on to
it [sex], having attached to this desire the most noble, useful, and
pleasant of all her operations; and on the other hand she lets us
accuse and shun it as shameless and indecent, blush at it, and
recommend abstinence. Are we not brutes to call brutish the operation
that makes us?
The various nations in their religions
have many conventions in common, such as sacrifices, lamps, burning
incense, fasts, offerings, and among other things, the condemnation
of this action. All opinions come to this, besides the very
widespread practice of cutting off the foreskin, which is a
punishment of the act. Perhaps we are right to blame ourselves for
making such a stupid production as man, to call the action shameful,
and shameful the parts that are used for it. (At present mine are
truly shameful and pitiful.) [p 669]
...in truth there is no greater, more
constant, or more uncouth absurdity, than to become worked up and
stung by the absurdities of the world....In short, we must live among
the living, and let the river flow under the bridge, without caring,
or at the very least, without being upset by it. [p709]
Those who go to the other extreme, of
taking delight in themselves, of valuing what they have above other
things and recognizing nothing as more beautiful than what they see,
if they are not wiser than we, are in truth happier. [p 723]
Oh, what a vile and stupid study it is
to study one's money, to take pleasure in handling it, weighing it,
and counting it over and over! That is the way averice makes its
approach. [p 727]
Not by the calculation of your
income, but by your manner of living and your culture, is your wealth
really to be reckoned {Cicero]
[p724]
I
should have thought as much of giving pleasure as of gaining profit.
[p 741]
It is
an absolute perfection and virtually divine to know how to enjoy our
being rightfully. We seek other conditions because we do not
understand the use of our own, and go outside of ourselves because we
do not know what it is like inside. Yet there is no use our mounting
on stilts, for on stilts we must still walk on our own legs. And on
the loftiest throne in the world we are still sitting only on our own
rump. [p 857]
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