Of no day can the retrospect cause pain to a good man.

It is easy in adversity to despise death; he has real fortitude who dares to live and be wretched.

If pale beans bubble for you in a red earthenware pot, you can often decline the dinners of sumptuous hosts.

Generosity during life is a very different thing from generosity in the hour of death; one proceeds from genuine liberality, and benevolence; the other from pride or fear, or from the fact that you cannot take your money with you to the other world.

There is nothing more contemptible than a bald man who pretends to have hair.

Why do I not kiss you, Philaenis? you are bald. Why do I not kiss you, Philaenis? you are carrotty. Why do I not kiss you, Philaenis? you are one-eyed. He who kisses you, Philaenis, sins against nature.

While you cannot resolve what you are, at last you may be nothing.