Some species increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and, like runners, pass on the torch of life.

You may complete as many generations as you please during your life; none the less will that everlasting death await you.

The sum of all sums is eternity.

And part of the soil is called to wash away In storms and streams shave close and gnaw the rocks. Besides, whatever the earth feeds and grows Is restored to earth. And since she surely is The womb of all things and their common grave, Earth must dwindle, you see and take on growth again.

True piety lies rather in the power to contemplate the universe with a quiet mind.

For it is unknown what is the real nature of the soul, whether it be born with the bodily frame or be infused at the moment of birth, whether it perishes along with us, when death separates the soul and body, or whether it visits the shades of Pluto and bottomless pits, or enters by divine appointment into other animals.

From the heart of this fountain of delights wells up some bitter taste to choke them even amid the flowers.