People who are very vain are usually equally susceptible; and they who feel one thing acutely, will so feel another.

Debt is to man what the serpent is to the bird; its eye fascinates, its breath poisons, its coil crushes sinew and bone, its jaw is the pitiless grave.

He who sees his heir in his own child, carries his eye over hopes and possessions lying far beyond his gravestone, viewing his life, even here, as a period but closed with a comma. He who sees his heir in another man's child sees the full stop at the end of the sentence.

Strive, while improving your one talent, to enrich your whole capital as a man. It is in this way that you escape from the wretched narrow-mindedness which is the characteristic of every one who cultivates his specialty alone.

The fewer blows, the better. Brave men fight if they must; wise men never fight if they can help it.

Poets alone are sure of immortality; they are the truest diviners of nature.

A woman is seldom merciful to the man who is timid.