Some men seem remarkable to the world in whom neither their wives nor their valets saw anything extraordinary. Few men have been admired by their servants.

I quote others in order to better express myself.

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

And one might therefore say of me that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other people's flowers, and that of my own I have only provided the string that ties them together.

Report followeth not all goodness, except difficulty and rarity be joined thereto.

Now, of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us, the contempt of death is one of the greatest.

A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready booted to take his journey, and above all things look he have then nothing to do but with himself.