I daresay one profits more by the mistakes one makes off one's own bat than by doing the right thing on somebody's else advice.
A joke's a very serious thing.
A chess genius is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise.
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
No matter what I do, no matter how predictable I try to make my life, it will not be any more predictable than the rest of the world. Which is chaotic.
It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted.
Good company and good discourse are the very sinews of virtue.