Fire tests gold, suffering tests brave men.

Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.

If you would judge, understand.

Those things which make the infernal regions terrible, the darkness, the prison, the river of flaming fire, the judgment seat, are all a fable, with which the poets amuse themselves, and by them agitate us with vain terrors.

He who boasts of his descent, praises the deed of another.

Precepts are like seeds; they are little things which do much good; if the mind which receives them has a disposition, it must not be doubted that his part contributes to the generation, and adds much to that which has been collected.

We have lost morals, justice, honor, piety and faith, and that sense of shame which, once lost, can never be restored.