No artist knows in his own lifetime whether what he does will be the slightest good, because it takes at least seventy-five to a hundred years before the thing begins to sort itself out.

If vices were profitable, the virtuous man would be the sinner.

In civil business; what first? boldness; what second and third? boldness: and yet boldness is a child of ignorance and baseness.

A good name is like precious ointment ; it filleth all round about, and will not easily away; for the odors of ointments are more durable than those of flowers.

They who derive their worth from their ancestors resemble potatoes, the most valuable part of which is underground.

The greatest vicissitude of things amongst men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions.

Upon a given body to generate and superinduce a new nature or new natures is the work and aim of human power. To discover the Form of a given nature, or its true difference, or its causal nature, or fount of its emanation... this is the work and aim of human knowledge.