A Man Who Makes Known His Love

The History Of My Life Must Begin By The Earliest Circumstance Which My Memory Can Evoke It Will Therefore Commence When I Had Attained The Age Of Eight Years And Four Months.

The Man Who Seeks To Educate Himself Must First Read And Then Travel In Order To Correct What He Has Learned.

The Reader Of These Memoirs Will Discover That I Never Had Any Fixed Aim Before My Eyes, And That My System, If It Can Be Called A System, Has Been To Glide Away Unconcernedly On The Stream Of Life, Trusting To The Wind Wherever It Led.

By Recollecting The Pleasures I Have Had Formerly, I Renew Them, I Enjoy Them A Second Time, While I Laugh At The Remembrance Of Troubles Now Past, And Which I No Longer Feel.

As For Myself, I Always Willingly Acknowledge My Own Self As The Principal Cause Of Every Good And Of Every Evil Which May Befall Me; Therefore, I Have Always Found Myself Capable Of Being My Own Pupil, And Ready To Love My Teacher.