Nothing is so false as human life, nothing so treacherous. God knows no one would have accepted it as a gift, if it had not been given without our knowledge.

He who does not want to die should not want to live. For life is tendered to us with the proviso of death. Life is the way to this destination.

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

No man is free who is a slave to the flesh.

Let us fight the battle-retreat from the things that attract us and rouse ourselves to meet the things that actually attack us.

The pleasures of the palate deal with us like Egyptian thieves who strangle those whom they embrace.

What narrow innocence it is for one to be good only according to the law.