Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another's net.

Truly man is a marvelously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgment on him.

An ancient father says that a dog we know is better company than a man whose language we do not understand.

Nature should have been pleased to have made this age miserable, without making it also ridiculous.

The entire lower world was created in the likeness of the higher world. All that exists in the higher world appears like an image in this lower world; yet all this is but One.

Friendship that possesses the whole soul, and there rules and sways with an absolute sovereignty, can admit of no rival.

There is nothing so noble and so right as to play our human life well and fitly, nor anything so difficult to learn as how to livethis life well and according to Nature.