We are a most solitary people, and we live, repelled by one another, in the gray, outcast cities of Cain.

I know sage, wormwood, and hyssop, but I can't smell character unless it stinks.

We are ruled by chance but never have enough patience to accept its despotism.

One cat in a house is a sign of loneliness.

The ancients understood the regulation of power better than the regulation of liberty.

Men are too unstable to be just; they are crabbed because they have not passed water at the usual time, or testy because they have not been stroked or praised.

We can only write well about our sins because it is too difficult to recall a virtuous act or even whether it was the result of good or evil motives.