Those who make a practice of comparing human actions are never so perplexed as when they try to see them as a whole and in the same light; for they commonly contradict each other so strangely that it seems impossible that they have come from the same shop.

If people must be talking about me, I would have it to be truthfully and justly. I would willingly return from the next world to contradict any person who described me other than I was, although he did it to honour me.

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do.

All the fame you should look for in life is to have lived it quietly.

To make a crooked stick straight, we bend it the contrary way.

The beginnings of all things are weak and tender. We must therefore be clear-sighted in the beginnings, for, as in their budding we discern not the danger, so in their full growth we perceive not the remedy.

I have often seen people uncivil by too much civility, and tiresome in their courtesy.