I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing.

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

But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.

Talkativeness has another plague attached to it, even curiosity; for praters wish to hear much that they may have much to say.

Being conscious of having done a wicked action leaves stings of remorse behind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart with perpetual wounds; for reason, which chases away all other pains, creates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punishes it with torment.

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

God alone is entirely exempt from all want of human virtues, that which needs least is the most absolute and divine.