There is nothing in life so irrational, that good sense and chance may not set it to rights; nothing so rational, that folly and chance may not utterly confound it.

Nature understands no jesting. She is always true, always serious, always severe. She is always right, and the errors are always those of man.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

Whatever is the lot of humankind I want to taste within my deepest self. I want to seize the highest and the lowest, to load its woe and bliss upon my breast, and thus expand my single self titanically and in the end go down with all the rest.

No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries.

We can redeem anyone who strives unceasingly.

No matter what one says, you can recognize only those matters that are equal to you. Only rulers who possess extraordinary abilities will recognize and esteem properly extraordinary abilities in their subjects and servants.