You gave me health that I might serve you; and so often I failed to use my good health in your service. Now you send me sickness in order to correct me Grant that, having ignored the things of spirit when my body was vigorous, I may now enjoy spiritual sweetness while my body groans with pain.

Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably.

Being unable to cure death, wretchedness, and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.

How hollow is the heart of man, and how full of excrement!

I can approve of those only who seek in tears for happiness.

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.

Our senses perceive no extreme. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great distance or proximity hinders ourview. Too great length and too great brevity of discourse tends to obscurity; too much truth is paralyzing.... In short, extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we them.