It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind.

(On the temperature of water in wells) The reason why the water in wells becomes colder in summer is that the earth is then rarefied by the heat, and releases into the air all the heat-particles it happens to have. So, the more the earth is drained of heat, the colder becomes the moisture that is concealed in the ground. On the other hand, when all the earth condenses and contracts and congeals with the cold, then, of course, as it contracts, it squeezes out into the wells whatever heat it holds.

It is pleasurable, when winds disturb the waves of a great sea, to gaze out from land upon the great trials of another.

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.

The fall of dropping water wears away the Stone.

Pleasant it to behold great encounters of warfare arrayed over the plains, with no part of yours in peril.

Fear is the mother of all gods ... Nature does all things spontaneously, by herself, without the meddling of the gods.