Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the generality of men.

As material fortune is associated with the properties of the body, so honor belongs to those of the soul.

The heaven is spherical in shape, and moves as a sphere; the earth too is sensibly spherical in shape, when taken as a whole; in position it lies in the middle of the heavens very much like its center; in size and distance it has the ratio of a point to the sphere of the fixed stars; and it has no motion from place to place.

The length of life takes the leading place among inquiries about events following birth.

It is clearly evident that most events of a widespread nature draw their causes from the enveloping heavens.

I often prefer the shapes within the raw materials to ‘do their thing’, as this makes it movre interesting for me. Sometimes a piece of hubcap fits in such a way that the shark becomes almost alive in my hands, climbing, twisting or just hanging motionless and predatory, and this gives me a buzz. It makes me feel like a vehicle for the creation process rather than a controller, and not knowing the exact outcome is exciting.

There are three classes of friendship and enmity, since men are so disposed to one another either by preference or by need or by pleasure and pain.