To how many blockheads of my time has a cold and taciturn demeanor procured the credit of prudence and capacity!

We cannot do without it, and yet we disgrace and vilify the same. It may be compared to a cage, the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair to get out.

There is no man so good that if he placed all his actions and thoughts under the scrutiny of the laws, he would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

There is not one of us that would not be worse than kings, if so continually corrupted as they are with a sort of vermin called flatterers.

Socrates and then Archesilaus used to make their pupils speak first; they spoke afterwards. 'Obest plerumque iss discere volunt authoritas eorum qui docent.' [For those who want to learn, the obstacle can often be the authority of those who teach]

There is some shadow of delight and delicacy which smiles upon and flatters us even in the very lap of melancholy.

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