Conscience is the moralized form of self-absorption.
I gulp down my pleasures, chew over my miseries.
The rich are never as possessed by their riches as the poor are by their poverty.
Like a frog, the aphorist waits for something to fly by that he can catch with his tongue.
Knowledge and power in the city; peace and decency in the country.
Old men feel a slightly reluctant affection for one another.