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

I speak the truth, not my fill of it, but as much as I dare speak; and I dare to do so a little more as I grow old.

Socrates ... brought human wisdom back down from heaven, where she was wasting her time, and restored her to man.... It is impossible to go back further and lower. He did a great favor to human nature by showing how much it can do by itself.

Our wisdom and deliberation for the most part follow the lead of chance.

In true education, anything that comes to our hand is as good as a book: the prank of a page- boy, the blunder of a servant, a bit of table talk - they are all part of the curriculum.

Can anything be imagined so ridiculous that this miserable and wretched creature, who is not so much as master of himself, but subject to the injuries of all things, should call himself master and emperor of the world, of which he has not power to know the least part, much less to command the whole?

Since we cannot match it let us take our revenge by abusing it.