For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

As bees extract honey from thyme, the strongest and driest of herbs, so sensible men often get advantage and profit from the most awkward circumstances.

The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtue or vice in men.

The present offers itself to our touch for only an instant of time and then eludes the senses.

When I myself had twice or thrice made a resolute resistance unto anger, the like befell me that did the Thebans; who, having once foiled the Lacedaemonians (who before that time had held themselves invincible), never after lost so much as one battle which they fought against them.

Nor let us part with justice, like a cheap and common thing, for a small and trifling price.