Men are nothing until they are excited.

The conduct of our lives is the true mirror of our doctrine.

To philosophize is to learn to die.

The births of all things are weak and tender and therefore we should have our eyes intent on beginnings.

Human understanding is marvellously enlightened by daily conversation with men, for we are, otherwise, compressed and heaped up in ourselves, and have our sight limited to the length of our own noses.

Tortures are a dangerous invention, and seem to be a test of endurance rather than of truth.

'As a man who knows how to make his education into a rule of life not a means of showing off; who can control himself and obey his own principles.' The true mirror of our discourse is the course of our lives.