Book: Experiments

The first and fundamental rule of virtue: it must be loved for its own sake. Anyone who tells the truth because due to some extraneous reasons he is forced to do so, or because it is more useful for him, and who is not afraid to lie when it is completely safe, cannot be called a truthful person.

You need to be valiant for your own sake and for the sake of the advantage that consists in mental firmness, confidently resisting all blows of fate.

We perceive things differently depending on who we are.

The scourge of man is imaginary knowledge. This is why the Christian religion so persistently preaches to us ignorance, which is the best basis for faith and obedience.

Our actions are nothing more than scattered, uncoordinated actions, and we want, using false names, to earn honor. Virtue demands that it be observed for its own sake; and if sometimes they hide behind it for other purposes, it immediately tears the mask off your face.

The most valiant are sometimes the most unlucky.

Being in uncertainty and anxiety generated in us by our inability to see and choose the most correct decision, since every business is fraught with difficulties due to all sorts of accidents and circumstances, in my opinion, the most reliable thing is to act as honestly and justly as possible; and when we are overcome by doubts about which path is the shortest, we always prefer the most direct one.

Our intentions are the judge of our actions.

We cannot be responsible for what is beyond our strength and capabilities.

There are things that are only hidden in order to be shown.

Who doesn’t understand how important it is for the state to raise children? And yet, without much thought, children are left to the mercy of their parents, no matter how eccentric and bad people they may be.

We have the right to sometimes lean on another, but not to fall on him with all our weight and support ourselves at the cost of his death.

Activity and observation are the qualities that most need to be cultivated in young people.

If we want our children to love us, if we want to deprive them of any reason to want us dead, then we should wisely do everything in our power for them.