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All the abuses in the world
“[A]ll the abuses in the world are engendered, by our being taught to be afraid of professing our ignorance and our being bound to accept everything that we cannot refute.” III.2 Of cripples (p. 959)
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Speech belongs half to the speaker
“Speech belongs half to the speaker, half to the listener. The latter must prepare to receive it according to the motion it takes. As among tennis players, the receiver moves and makes ready according to the motion of the striker and the nature of the stroke.” III.13 “Of experience” (p.1016)
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Nothing costs me dear
Nothing costs me dear except care and trouble, and I seek only to grow indifferent and relaxed. III. 9 “Of vanity” (p. 884).
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An open way of speaking
“An open way of speaking opens up another man’s speech and draws it out, as do wine and love” III.1 “Of the useful and the honorable” (p. 730)
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Surpass even miracles in obscurity
We have no need to go picking out miracles and remote difficulties; it seems to me that among the things we see ordinarily there are wonders so incomprehensible that they surpass even miracles in obscurity. II. 37 “Of the resemblance of children to fathers” (p. 619)
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No good thing is exempt from some mixture of pain and discomfort
“The weakness of our condition makes it impossible for things to come into our experience in their natural simplicity and purity […] Of the pleasures and good things that we have, there is not one exempt from some mixture of pain and discomfort.” II. 20 “We taste nothing pure” (p. 619)
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A book consubstantial with its author
I have no more made my book than my book has made me — a book consubstantial with its author […] For those who go over themselves only in their minds and occasionally in speech do not penetrate to essentials in their examination as does a man who makes his study, his work, and his…
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As deep as I know how
“For I do not see the whole of anything; nor do those who promise to show it to us. Of a hundred members and faces that each thing has, I take one, sometimes only to lick it, sometimes to brush the surface, sometimes to pinch it to the bone. I give it a stab, not…
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Our good and our ill depend on ourselves alone
“Our good and our ill depend on ourselves alone. Let us offer our offerings and vows to ourselves, not to Fortune; she has no power over our character; on the contrary, it drags her in its train and mold her in its own form.” I.50 “Of Democritus and Heraclitus” (p. 267)
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Life is neither good nor evil
“Life is neither good nor evil in itself: it is the scene of good and evil according as you give them room.” I.20 “That to philosophize is to learn to die” (p. 78)