No virtue can be real that has not been tried. The gold in the crucible alone is perfect; the loadstone tests the steel, and the diamond is tried by the diamond, while metals gleam the brighter in the furnace.

All must yield to the weight of years; conquest is not difficult for time.

How surely a knowledge of the world hardens the heart!

The heart is an astrologer that always divines the truth.

Our treasures trifles seem, and all our life is dreaming, and the dreams themselves are dreams.

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.

A friar who asks alms for God's sake begs for two.