The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mould
The recognition of virtue is not less valuable from the lips of the man who hates it, since truth forces him to acknowledge it; and though he may be unwilling to take it into his inmost soul, he at least decks himself out in its trappings.
The most regular and most perfect soul in the world has but too much to do to keep itself upright from being overthrown by its own weakness.
It is for little souls, that truckle under the weight of affairs, not to know how clearly to disengage themselves, and not to know how to lay them aside and take them up again.
Vice leaves repentance in the soul, like an ulcer in the flesh, which is always scratching and lacerating itself; for reason effaces all other griefs and sorrows, but it begets that of repentance.
Socrates, who was a perfect model in all great qualities, ... hit on a body and face so ugly and so incongruous with the beauty of his soul, he who was so madly in love with beauty.
As great enmities spring from great friendships, and mortal distempers from vigorous health, so do the most surprising and the wildest frenzies from the high and lively agitations of our souls.
To make judgements about great and lofty things, a soul of the same stature is needed; otherwise we ascribe to them that vice which is our own.
Obstinacy and contention are common qualities, most appearing in, and best becoming, a mean and illiterate soul.
The soul that has no established aim loses itself
The souls of emperors and cobblers are cast in the same mold. The same reason that makes us wrangle with a neighbor creates a war betwixt princes.
The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced.
The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things.
Valor is strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul; it consists not in the worth of our horse or our weapons, but in our own.
The soul which has no fixed purpose in life is lost; to be everywhere, is to be nowhere.
The lack of wealth is easily repaired but the poverty of the soul is irreplaceable.
My home...It is my retreat and resting place from wars, I try to keep this corner as a haven against the tempest outside, as I do another corner in my soul.
Nor is it enough to toughen up his soul; you must also toughen up his muscles.
For among other things he had been counseled to bring me to love knowledge and duty by my own choice, without forcing my will, and to educate my soul entirely through gentleness and freedom.
The virtue of the soul does not consist in flying high, but in walking orderly.
Friendship that possesses the whole soul, and there rules and sways with an absolute sovereignty, can admit of no rival.
Fortune does us neither good nor hurt; she only presents us the matter, and the seed, which our soul, more powerfully than she, turns and applies as she best pleases; being the sole cause and sovereign mistress of her own happy or unhappy condition.
The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.
Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of soul, impossible.
Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.
There is no so wretched and coarse a soul wherein some particular faculty is not seen to shine.
Pride and curiosity are the two scourges of our souls. The latter prompts us to poke our noses into everything, and the former forbids us to leave anything unresolved and undecided.
It is a small soul, buried beneath the weight of affairs, that does not know how to get clean away from them, that cannot put them aside and pick them up again.
Only he can judge of matters great and high whose soul is likewise.
I honor most those to whom I show least honor; and where my soul moves with great alacrity, I forget the proper steps of ceremony.