Everything here below beneath the sun is subject to continual change; and perhaps there is nothing which can be called more inconstant than opinion, which turns round in an everlasting circle like the wheel of fortune. He who reaps praise today is overwhelmed with biting censure tomorrow; today we trample under foot the man who tomorrow will be raised far above us.

Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain.

Every year lays more earth upon us, which weighs us down from aerial regions, till we go under the earth at last.

It is only in the morning that one should marry, read unfavourable reviews, make one's will, beat one's servants, and so forth.

It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction.

I may be permitted, kind reader, to doubt whether you have ever been enclosed in a glass bottle, unless some vivid dream has teased you with such magical mishaps.

It is true that writers often owe their most inspired thoughts, their most extraordinary phrases, to their generous typesetters, who assist their flights of fancy with so-called typographical errors.