We should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful.

[this element], the seat of the appetites and of desire in general, does in a sense participate in principle, as being amenable and obedient to it

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

Worthless persons appointed to have supreme control of weighty affairs do a lot of damage.

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor; it is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity of the dissimilar.

It has been well said that 'he who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.' The two are not the same, but the good citizen ought to be capable of both; he should know how to govern like a freeman, and how to obey like a freeman - these are the virtues of a citizen.