He who has fostered the sweet poison of love by fondling it, finds it too late to refuse the yoke which he has of his own accord assumed.

Hold fast then to this sound and wholesome rule of life; indulge the body only as far as is needful for health.

It's unknown the place and uncertain the time where death awaits you; thus you must expect death to find you, every time, at every place.

There is no benefit so large that malignity will not lessen it; none so narrow that a good interpretation will not enlarge it.

There is nothing that Nature has made necessary which is more easy than death; we are longer a-coming into the world than going out of it; and there is not any minute of our lives wherein we may not reasonably expect it. Nay, it is but a momen'ts work, the parting of soul and body. What a shame is it then to stand in fear of anything so long that is over so soon!

That which has been endured with difficulty is remedied with delight.

Finally, everybody agrees that no one pursuit can be successfully followed by a man who is preoccupied with many things-eloquence cannot, nor the liberal studies-since the mind, when distracted, takes in nothing very deeply, but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed into it. There is nothing the busy man is less busied with than living: there is nothing that is harder to learn.