The march of good fortune has backward slips: to retreat one or two paces gives wings to the jumper.

If I am mad, then who on the face of the earth is sane? If you are sane, then there is no madman in the world.

What does it profit you that all the libraries of the world should be yours? Not knowledge but what one does with knowledge is your profit.

The life of this transitory world is the expectation of death: to renounce life is to escape from the expectation of annihilation.

When poison becomes a habit, it ceases to injure: make your soul gradually acquainted with death.

The roots of the aged palm tree exceed those of the young one; the old have a greater attachment to the world.

Ten doors are opened if one door be shut: the finger is the interpreter of the dumb man's tongue.