There is power in ambition, pleasure in luxury...but envy can gain nothing but vexation.

The premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty; he who has learnt to die has forgot to serve.

Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.

When I play with my cat, who knows whether she is not amusing herself with me more than I with her.

Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.

Wise men have more to learn of fools than fools of wise men.

The curiosity of knowing things has been given to man for a scourge.