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

Not snow, no, nor rain, nor heat, nor night keeps them from accomplishing their appointed courses with all speed.

God does not suffer presumption in anyone but himself.

In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, and fathers bury sons.

Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot: unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses and become mad.

Calumny is a monstrous vice: for, where parties indulge in it, there are always two that are actively engaged in doing wrong, and one who is subject to injury. The calumniator inflicts wrong by slandering the absent; he who gives credit to the calumny before he has investigated the truth is equally implicated. The person traduced is doubly injured--first by him who propagates, and secondly by him who credits the calumny.

Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.