I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially my own affairs; I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them.

What were once vices are the fashion of the day.

All things are cause for either laughter or weeping.

If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world's caprice, you will never be rich.

In a moment the ashes are made, but a forest is a long time growing.

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.