The willing, destiny guides them; the unwilling, destiny drags them.

That moderation which nature prescribes, which limits our desires by resources restricted to our needs, has abandoned the field; it has now come to this -- that to want only what is enough is a sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution.

It is a common thing to screw up justice to the pitch of an injury. A man may be over-righteous, and why not over-grateful, too? There is a mischievous excess that borders so close upon ingratitude that it is no easy matter to distinguish the one from the other; but, in regard that there is good-will in the bottom of it, however distempered; for it is effectually but kindness out of the wits.

The man who can be compelled knows not how to die.

The mind makes the nobleman, and uplifts the lowly to high degree.

The artist finds a greater pleasure in painting than in having completed the picture.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.