Compassion and shame come over one who considers how precarious is the origin of the proudest of living beings: often the smell of a lately extinguished lamp is enough to cause a miscarriage. And to think that from such a frail beginning a tyrant or butcher may be born! You who trust in your physical strength, who embrace the gifts of fortune and consider yourself not their ward but their son, you who have a domineering spirit, you who consider yourself a god as soon as success swells your breast, think how little could have destroyed you!

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written, and writing what deserves to be read.

The desire to know a thing is heightened by its gratification being deferred.

In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.

The agricultural population produces the bravest men, the most valiant soldiers,46 and a class of citizens the least given of all to evil designs.

The only thing man knows instinctively is how to weep.

Wine refreshes the stomach, sharpens the appetite, blunts care and sadness, and conduces to slumber.