The bee and the serpent often sip from the selfsame flower.

If every man's internal care Were written on his brow, How many would our pity share Who raise our envy now?

It is the just decree of Heaven that a traitor never sees his danger till his ruin is at hand.

Prepare thy soul calmly to obey; such offering will be more acceptable to God than every other sacrifice.

Fortune is the best school of courage when she is fraught with anger, in the same way as winds and tempests are the school of the sailorboy.

High birth is an accident, not a virtue.

We are like vessels tossed on the bosom of the deep; our passions are the winds that sweep us impetuously forward; each pleasure is a rock; the whole life is a wide ocean. Reason is the pilot to guide us, but often allows itself to be led astray by the storms of pride.