“But the greatest wisdom could be blinded by the glare of vanity.”

“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, and there is nothing new under the sun, as Solomon said more than three thousand years ago.”

“With the rain, falls the wisdom of heaven.”

“I needed to pass on those secrets to a man I knew well. All my students are terribly virtuous and only show their good qualities. That is dangerous, for virtue often serves to hide vanity, pride and intolerance. That is why I chose the one student I knew really well, the one whose faults I could see most clearly.”

“The path to wisdom is to be yourself. Stop "seeking".”

“Beauty is the greatest seducer of men.”

“The wise men understood that this natural world is only an image and a copy of paradise. The existence of this world is simply a guarantee that there exists a world that is perfect. God created the world so that, through its visible objects, men could understand his spiritual teachings and the marvels of his wisdom.”