It is the man determines what is said, not the words.

On the whole, Chaucer impresses us as greater than his reputation, and not a little like Homer and Shakespeare, for he would haveheld up his head in their company.

Most men I do not meet at all, for they seem not to have time; they are busy about their beans.

In the meanest are all the materials of manhood, only they are not rightly disposed.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are.

I have seen some whose consciences, owing undoubtedly to former indulgence, had grown to be as irritable as spoilt children, and at length gave them no peace. They did not know when to swallow their cud, and their lives of course yielded no milk.

Birds never sing in caves.