What sort of tree is there which will not, if neglected, grow crooked and unfruitful; what but Will, if rightly ordered, prove productive and bring its fruit to maturity? What strength of body is there which will not lose its vigor and fall to decay by laziness, nice usage, and debauchery?

Good birth is a fine thing, but the merit is our ancestors.

The measure of a man's life is the well spending of it, and not the length.

It was not important how many enemies there are, but where the enemy is

For man is a plant, not fixed in the earth, nor immovable, but heavenly, whose head, rising as it were from a root upwards, is turned towards heaven.

Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does.

I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised.