A human body in no way resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk's bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare.

...To the Dolphin alone, beyond all other, nature has granted what the best philosophers seek: friendship for no advantage

Medicine to produce health must examine disease; and music, to create harmony must investigate discord.

Hesiod might as well have kept his breath to cool his pottage.

The man who first brought ruin upon the Roman people was he who pampered them by largesses and amusements.

But being overborne with numbers, and nobody daring to face about, stretching out his hands to heaven, [Romulus] prayed to Jupiter to stop the army, and not to neglect but maintain the Roman cause, now in extreme danger. The prayer was no sooner made, than shame and respect for their king checked many; the fears of the fugitives changed suddenly into confidence.

Blinded as they are to their true character by self-love, every man is his own first and chiefest flatterer, prepared, therefore, to welcome the flatterer from the outside, who only comes confirming the verdict of the flatterer within.