The superstitious man wishes he did not believe in gods, as the atheist does not, but fears to disbelieve in them.

Lamentation is the only musician that always, like a screech-owl, alights and sits on the roof of any angry man.

Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life as a mind free from guilt and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes that are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted but also undisturbed. The fountain will run clear and unsullied.

Painting is silent poetry.

The usual disease of princes, grasping covetousness, had made them suspicious and quarrelsome neighbors.

Abstruse questions must have abstruse answers.

It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.