I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. Michel de Montaigne

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. Leo Tolstoy

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.

No one is free who is not master of himself. Pythagoras

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself. Galileo