If virtue cannot shine bright, but by the conflict of contrary appetites, shall we then say that she cannot subsist without the assistance of vice, and that it is from her that she derives her reputation and honor?

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

Adrian, the Emperor, exclaimed incessantly, when dying, "That the crowd of physicians had killed him."

The good, supreme, divine poetry is above the rules and reason. Whoever discerns its beauty with a firm, sedate gaze does not see it, any more than he sees the splendor of a lightning flash. It does not persuade our judgement, it ravishes and overwhelms it.

Decency, not to dare to do that in public which it is decent enough to do in private.

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.

The laws of conscience, though we ascribe them to nature, actually come from custom.