It is pleasant, when the sea is high and the winds are dashing the waves about, to watch from the shores the struggles of another.

Nothing from nothing ever yet was born.

From the very fountain of enchantment there arises a taste of bitterness to spread anguish amongst the flowers.

Thus the sum of things is ever being reviewed, and mortals dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life.

We notice that the mind grows with the body, and with it decays.

No fact is so simple that it is not harder to believe than to doubt at the first presentation. Equally, there is nothing so mighty or so marvelous that the wonder it evokes does not tend to diminish in time.

Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's great tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive from what ills you are free yourself is pleasant.