It is something, I thought, when a king can put a courtesan to the blush.
Often beauty grows dull or common when speech breaks the mask.
The perpetual stream of human nature is formed into ever-changing shallows, eddies, falls and pools by the land over which it passes. Perhaps the only real value of history lies in considering this endlessly varied play between the essence and the accidents.
There is nothing like despair to make one throw oneself upon the gods.
Everything is change; and you cannot step twice into the same river.
But courage without conduct is the virtue of a robber, or a tyrant.