An hour-glass is a reminder not only of time's quick flight, but also of the dust to which we must at last return

Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.

The highest point to which a weak but experienced mind can rise is detecting the weakness of better men.

To make astute people believe one is what one is not is, in most cases, harder than actually to become what one wishes to appear.

The highest level than can be reached by a mediocre but experienced mind is a talent for uncovering the weaknesses of those greater than itself.

Non cogitant, ergo non sunt.

Imagine the world so greatly magnified that particles of light look like twenty-four-pound cannon balls.