As for the garden of mint, the very smell of it alone recovers and refreshes our spirits, as the taste stirs up our appetite for meat.

How many things... are looked upon as quite impossible until they have been actually effected?

The feasant hens of Colchis, which have two ears as it were consisting of feathers, which they will set up and lay down as they list.

There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it.

The most disgraceful cause of the scarcity [of remedies] is that even those who know them do not want to point them out, as if they were going to lose what they pass on to others.

Wine takes away reason, engenders insanity, leads to thousands of crimes, and imposes such an enormous expense on nations.

The largest land animal is the elephant, and it is the nearest to man in intelligence: it understands the language of its country and obeys orders, remembers duties that it has been taught, is pleased by affection and by marks of honour, nay more it possesses virtues rare even in man, honesty, wisdom, justice, also respect for the stars and reverence for the sun and moon.