Distinctly different as a child, as an adolescent, in his prime and in his old age, man considers himself as one, not because he acts, but because he knows.

Love! Hate! Is there no third?

Why I love the ancients so much? Aside from everything else, when I read them, the entire past between them and me unfolds at thesame time. The hearts of how many heroes and poets may have been set on fire by Plutarch's biographies which now inspire me with their own and with borrowed flames!

Why does the past look so enticing to us? For the same reason why from a distance a meadow with flowers looks like a flower bed.

You ardently strive for freedom, and I do wish you were free--but, rather than for your sake, so that government won't be.

Just as the queen bee, the highest-ranking, peerless creature of her hive, is surrounded by lowly drones to please her, whereas the workers produce honey, the same way is the one who sits on the throne an equal only to himself, and no one's companion.

It is fair to despise a cowardly man, but the female sex is strongest when it's weak.