Nature does not reveal all her secrets at once. We imagine we are initiated in her mysteries: we are, as yet, but hanging around her outer courts.

A man's ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. If his soul be well-ordered, serious and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is contaminated.

Study rather to fill your mind than your coffers; knowing that gold and silver were originally mingled with dirt, until avarice or ambition parted them.

Levity of behavior is the bane of all that is good and virtuous.

We learn not for life but for the debating-room.

If sensuality were happiness, beasts were happier than men; but human felicity is lodged in the soul, not in the flesh.

Constant exposure to dangers will breed contempt for them.