“Thus the sum of things is ever being renewed, and mortals live dependent one upon another. Some nations increase, others diminish, and in a short space the generations of living creatures are changed and like runners pass on the torch of life.”

“Mortal, what hast thou of such grave concernThat thou indulgest in too sickly plaints?Why this bemoaning and beweeping death?For if thy life aforetime and behindTo thee was grateful, and not all thy goodWas heaped as in sieve to flow awayAnd perish unavailingly, why not,Even like a banqueter, depart the hall,Laden with life?”

“Violence and injury enclose in their net all that do such things, and generally return upon him who began.”

“Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's tribulation: not because any man's troubles are a delectable joy, but because to perceive from what ills you are free yourself is pleasant.”

“Life is one long struggle in the dark.”

“Though you outlive as many generations as you will,Nevertheless, Eternal Death is waiting for you still.It is no shorter, that eternity that lies in storeFor the man who with the setting sun today will rise no more,Than for the man whose sun has set months, even years, before.”

“So far as it goes, a small thing may give analogy of great things, and show the tracks of knowledge.”