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

We listen with deep interest to what we hear, for to man novelty is ever charming.

We ought to be guarded against every appearance of envy, as a passion that always implies inferiority wherever it resides.

Human nature craves novelty.

Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides.

Contact with [menstrual blood] turns new wine sour, crops touched by it become barren, grafts die, seed in gardens are dried up, the fruit of trees fall off, the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory are dulled, hives of bees die, even bronze and iron are at once seized by rust, and a horrible smell fills the air; to taste it drives dogs mad and infects their bites with an incurable poison.

When collapse is imminent, the little rodents flee.