If I had my life over again I should form the habit of nightly composing myself to thoughts of death. I would practise, as it were, the remembrance of death. There is no other practice which so intensifies life. Death, when it approaches, ought not to take one by surprise. It should be part of the full expectancy of life. Without an ever-present sense of death life is insipid.

Beware the ire of the calm.

Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first

It is well, when in difficulties, to say never a word, neither black nor white. Speech is silver but silence is golden.

sooner or later I do what I want to do.

So great was the noise during the day that I used to lie awake at night listening to silence.

From my experience of life I believe my personal motto should be: 'Beware of any man bringing flowers.