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.

The ripeness of adolescence is prodigal in pleasures, skittish, and in need of a bridle.

Themistocles replied that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.

Our nature holds so much envy and malice that our pleasure in our own advantages is not so great as our distress at others'.

It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.

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

As those that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the gods, prop up such parts as are contiguous to them; so, in undermining bashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good-nature and humanity.