All the world knows me in my book, and my book in me.

All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.

Pythagoras used to say that life resembles the Olympic Games: a few people strain their muscles to carry off a prize; others bring trinkets to sell to the crowd for gain; and some there are, and not the worst, who seek no other profit than to look at the show and see how and why everything is done; spectators of the life of other people in order to judge and regulate their own.

There is not much less vexation in the government of a private family than in the managing of an entire state.

Those who have compared our life to a dream were right... we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep.

Such as are in immediate fear of a losing their estates, of banishment, or of slavery, live in perpetual anguish, and lose all appetite and repose; whereas such as are actually poor, slaves, or exiles, ofttimes live as merrily as other folk.