Chances rule men and not men chances.

The Persians are very fond of wine ... It is also their general practice to deliberate upon affairs of weight when they are drunk; and then in the morning, when they are sober, the decision to which they came the night before is put before them by the master of the house in which it was made; and if it is then approved they act on it; if not, they set it aside. Sometimes, however, they are sober at their first deliberations, but in this case they always reconsider the matter under the influence of wine.

A man trusts his ears less than his eyes.

The Scythians take kannabis seed, creep in under the felts, and throw it on the red-hot stones. It smolders and sends up such billows of steam-smoke that no Greek vapor bath can surpass it. The Scythians howl with joy in these vapor-baths, which serve them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water.

If someone were to put a proposition before men bidding them choose, after examination, the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly select its own

For of those [cities] that were great in earlier times, most of them have now become small, while those which were great in my time were small formerly.

All men's gains are the fruit of venturing.