Quotes About Reflection

The whole effort of a sincere man is to erect his personal impressions into laws.

Full awakening called for humility in emptiness.

C'est le passé. L'avenir sombre dans le passé dès qu'il a cessé d'être futur. Le présent n'existe pas. Vouloir l'éterniser, c'était éterniser le néant. C'est ce que j'ai fait !

La seule fréquentation des mathématiques ne mûrit guère le cÅ"ur ni le caractère.

Arrêtez-vous ! Arrachez-vous au vertige, réfléchissez !

Il se trouvait prisonnier du passé, enchaîné par des ombres !

Voler une ombre, dépouiller un souvenir, est-ce vraiment voler ?

The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.

It is best not to go on for great quest for truth , it will only make you miserable

When I turn my mind's eye upon myself, I understand that I am a thing which is incomplete and dependent on another and which aspires without limit to ever greater and better things...

For the very fact that my knowledge is increasing little by little is the most certain argument for its imperfection.

reading good books is like engaging in conversation with the most cultivated minds of past centuries who had composed them, or rather, taking part in a well-conducted dialogue in which such minds reveal to us only the best of their thoughts

To live well, one must live unseen.

It cannot be denied that he has had many exceptional ideas, and that he is a highly intelligent man. For my part, however, I have always been taught to take a broad overview of things, in order to be able to deduce from them general rules, which might be applicable elsewhere.

The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.

to live well you must live unseen

we ought not meanwhile to make use of doubt in the conduct of life.

I will follow this strategy until I discover something that is certain or, at least, until I discover that it is certain only that nothing is certain.

It is good to know something of the customs of different people in order to judge more soundly of our own, and so that we might not think that all that which is contrary to our own ways be ridiculous and contrary to reason, as those who have seen nothing have the habit of doing.

But as soon as I had finished my course of study, at which time it is usual to be admitted to the ranks of the well educated, I completely changed my opinion, for I found myself bogged down in so many doubts and errors, that it seemed to me that having set out to become learned, I had derived no benefit from my studies, other than that of progressively revealing to myself how ignorant I was.

it appears to me that I have discovered many truths more useful and more important than all I had before learned, or even had expected to learn.

For I found myself involved in so many doubts and errors, that I was convinced I had advanced no farther in all my attempts at learning, than the discovery at every turn of my own ignorance. And

I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that of which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world, I spent the rest of my youth traveling, visiting courts and armies, mixing with people of diverse temperaments and ranks, gathering various experiences, testing myself in the situations which fortune offered me, and at all times reflecting upon whatever came my way so as to derive some profit from it.

entre plusieurs opinions également reçues, je ne choisissais que les plus modérées, tant à cause que ce sont toujours les plus commodes pour la pratique, et vraisemblablement les meilleures, tous excès ayant coutume d'être mauvais, comme aussi afin de me détourner moins du vrai chemin, en cas que je faillisse, que si, ayant choisi l'un des extrêmes, c'eût été l'autre qu'il fallu suivre. (3e partie, para 2)