Vice leaves repentance in the soul, like an ulcer in the flesh, which is always scratching and lacerating itself; for reason effaces all other griefs and sorrows, but it begets that of repentance.

Oh senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm or a flea and yet will create Gods by the dozen!

Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.

No man dies before his hour. The time you leave behind was no more yours, than that which was before your birth, and concerneth you no more.

Painting myself for others, I have painted my inward self with colors clearer than my original ones. I have no more made my book than my book has made me--a book consubstantial with its author, concerned with my own self, an integral part of my life; not concerned with some third-hand, extraneous purpose, like all other books.