“In the midst of the fountain of wit there arises something bitter, which stings in the very flowers.”

“Every person tries to flee himself—yet despite ourselves, we remain attached to this self which we hate.”

“Another fallacy comes creeping in whose errors you should be meticulous in trying to avoid. Don't think our eyes, our bright and shining eyes, were made for us to look ahead with. Don't suppose our thigh bones fitted our shin bones and our shins our ankles so that we might take steps. Don't think that arms dangled from shoulders and branched out in hands with fingers at their ends, both right and left, for us to do whatever need required for our survival. All such argument, all such interpretation is perverse, fallacious, puts the cart before the horse. No bodily thing was born for us to use. Nature had no such aim, but what was born creates the use. There could be no such thing as sight before the eyes were formed. No speech before the tongue was made, but tongues began long before speech were uttered. and the ears were fashioned long before a sound was heard. And all the organs I feel sure, were there before their use developed. They could not evolve for the sake of use be so designed. But battling hand to hand and slashing limbs, fouling the foe in blood, these antedate the flight of shining javelins. Nature taught men out to dodge a wound before they learned the fit of shield to arm. Rest certainly is older in the history of man than coverlets or mattresses, and thirst was quenched before the days of cups or goblets. Need has created use as man contrives device for his comfort. but all these cunning inventions are far different from all those things much older, which supply their function from their form. The limbs, the sense, came first, their usage afterwards. Never think they could have been created for the sake of being used.”

“E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumenqui primus potuisti inlustrans commoda vitae,te sequor, o Graiae gentis decus, inque tuis nuncficta pedum pono pressis vestigia signis,non ita certandi cupidus quam propter amoremquod te imitari aveo; quid enim contendat hirundocycnis, aut quid nam tremulis facere artubus haediconsimile in cursu possint et fortis equi vis?tu, pater, es rerum inventor, tu patria nobissuppeditas praecepta, tuisque ex, inclute, chartis,floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant,omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta,aurea, perpetua semper dignissima vita.nam simul ac ratio tua coepit vociferarinaturam rerum divina mente coortadiffugiunt animi terrores, moenia mundidiscedunt. totum video per inane geri res.apparet divum numen sedesque quietae,quas neque concutiunt venti nec nubila nimbisaspergunt neque nix acri concreta pruinacana cadens violat semper[que] innubilus aetherintegit et large diffuso lumine ridet:omnia suppeditat porro natura neque ullares animi pacem delibat tempore in ullo.”

“Continual dropping wears away a stone.”

“Life is one long struggle in the dark.”

“Truths kindle light for truths.”