I feed on good soup, not beautiful language.

True, Heaven prohibits certain pleasures; but one can generally negotiate a compromise.

...all the failures of the great leaders have arisen merely from a lack of skill in dancing.

Birth is nothing without virtue, and we have no claim to share in the glory of our ancestors unless we endeavor to resemble them.

They [zealots] would have everybody be as blind as themselves: to them, to be clear-sighted is libertinism.

What! Would you make no distinction between hypocrisy and devotion? Would you give them the same names, and respect the mask as you do the face? Would you equate artifice and sincerity? Confound appearance with truth? Regard the phantom as the very person? Value counterfeit as cash?

Malicious tongues spread their poison abroad and nothing here below is proof against them.