What madness it is for a man to starve himself to enrich his heir, and so turn a friend into an enemy! For his joy at your death will be proportioned to what you leave him.

A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the study of so vast a subject. A time will come when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them.

Obedience is yielded more readily to one who commands gently.

He who would arrive at the appointed end must follow a single road and not wander through many ways.

The mind is never right but when it is at peace within itself; the soul is in heaven even while it is in the flesh, if it be purged of its natural corruptions, and taken up with divine thoughts, and contemplations.

Many person might have achieved wisdom had they not supposed that they already possessed it.

Some laws, though unwritten, are more firmly established than all written laws.