The first question concerning the Celestial Bodies is whether there be a system, that is whether the world or universe compose together one globe, with a center, or whether the particular globes of earth and stars be scattered dispersedly, each on its own roots, without any system or common center.

The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.

If I sit and daydream, the images rush by like a succession of colored slides.

Certainly virtue is like precious odors, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

Before I start painting I have a slightly ambiguous feeling: happiness is a special excitement because unhappiness is always possible a moment later.

Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.