Literature gives us a memory of lives we did not lead.

Fulfillment is often more trouble than it is worth.

Well-behaved: he always speaks as if his mother might be listening.

Lawyers may reason powerfully, but power settles most issues.

When sages commend excess, Desire is sick.

Self-satisfaction and self-pity are both condemned. What are people permitted to feel about themselves?

Beauty is lyrical. Ugliness is elegiac.