What does reason demand of a man? A very easy thing-to live in accord with his own nature.

The wretched hasten to hear of their own miseries.

Precepts are the rules by which we ought to square our lives. When they are contracted into sentences, they strike the affections; whereas admonition is only blowing of the coal.

What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.

That which we are not permitted to have we delight in; that which we can have is disregarded.

Do not ask for what you will wish you had not got.

It is better to have useless knowledge than to know nothing.