I also know that we must cultivate our garden. For when man was put in the Garden of Eden, he was put there ut operaretur eum, to work; which proves that man was not born for rest.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.

my soul is the mirror of the universe, and my body is its frame

There is an astonishing imagination, even in the science of mathematics. ... We repeat, there was far more imagination in the head of Archimedes than in that of Homer.

Pleasure has its time; so too, has wisdom. Make love in thy youth, and in old age attend to thy salvation.

Such then is the human condition, that to wish greatness for one's country is to wish harm to one's neighbors.

Fear could never make virtue.