For contemplation is both the highest form of activity (since the intellect is the highest thing in us, and the objects that it apprehends are the highest things that can be known), and also it is the most continuous, because we are more capable of continuous contemplation than we are of any practical activity.

Wit is educated insolence.

The happy life is thought to be one of excellence; now an excellent life requires exertion, and does not consist in amusement.

Character is revealed through action.

When you ask a dumb question, you get a smart answer.

Revolutions are effected in two ways, by force and by fraud.

[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