Who so hath his mind on taking, hath it no more on what he taketh.

A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.

He who falls obstinate in his courage, if he falls he fights from his knees.

Ambition sufficiently plagues her proselytes, by keeping themselves always in show, like the statue of a public place.

I, who am king of the matter I treat, and who owe an accounting for it to no one, do not for all that believe myself in all I write. I often hazard sallies of my mind which I mistrust.

The most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles.

It is the part of cowardliness, and not of virtue, to seek to squat itself in some hollow lurking hole, or to hide herself under some massive tomb, thereby to shun the strokes of fortune.