Living, we fret. Dying, we live. I’ll keep that in mind. I’ll be of good cheer.

Aristocrats might shrug, but commoners, dreading any collapse of the social order, wanted the rules of behavior to be observed.

Men of great spirit are at high risk at a time when small souls rule the world.

Never pass by a chance to shut up.

To devote oneself to vigilance when the enemy is an imaginary one is idle, and to congratulate oneself for looking long and well for a foe that is not coming is foolish and sinful. My life has been a waste.

One defining symptom of decadence is a fondness for vast and nonsensical extravagance.

When you know that something is dying inside you, you learn not to put much trust in the random vitalities of the fleeting moment.