Nature ordains that a man should wish the good of every man, whoever he may be, for this very reason that he is a man.

Justice renders to every one his due.

The foolishness of old age does not characterize all who are old, but only the foolish.

It is of no avail to know what is about to happen; for it is a sad thing to be grieved when grief can do no good.

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.

Men, in whatever anxiety they may be, if they are men, sometimes indulge in relaxation.

The following passage is one of those cited by Copernicus himself in his preface to De Revolutionibus: "The Syracusan Hicetas, as Theophrastus asserts, holds the view that the heaven, sun, moon, stars, and in short all of the things on high are stationary, and that nothing in the world is in motion except the earth, which by revolving and twisting round its axis with extreme velocity produces all the same results as would be produced if the earth were stationary and the heaven in motion. . . ."