“It is pleasant, when the sea is high and the winds are dashing the waves about, to watch from the shores the struggles of another.”

Tears for the mourners who are left behind Peace everlasting for the quiet dead.

There is no place in nature for extinction.

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

From the midst of the very fountain of pleasure, something of bitterness arises to vex us in the flower of enjoyment.

Religious questions have often led to wicked and impious actions.

For there is a VOID in things; a truth which it will be useful for you, in reference to many points, to know; and which will prevent you from wandering in doubt.

The sum of all sums is eternity.

Now come: that thou mayst able be to know That minds and the light souls of all that live Have mortal birth and death, I will go on Verses to build meet for thy rule of life, Sought after long, discovered with sweet toil.

The wailing of the newborn infant is mingled with the dirge for the dead.

The first-beginnings of things cannot be distinguished by the eye.

Not they who reject the gods are profane, but those who accept them.

All things keep on in everlasting motion, Out of the infinite come the particles, Speeding above, below, in endless dance.

Fear is the mother of all gods.

Why dost thou not retire like a guest sated with the banquet of life, and with calm mind embrace, thou fool, a rest that knows no care?

Rest, brother, rest. Have you done ill or well Rest, rest, There is no God, no gods who dwell Crowned with avenging righteousness on high Nor frowning ministers of their hate in hell.

There is nothing that exists so great or marvelous that over time mankind does not admire it less and less.

It was pleasant to wake up in Florence, to open the eyes upon a bright bare room, with a floor of red tiles which look clean though they are not; with a painted ceiling whereon pink griffins and blue amorini sport in a forest of yellow violins and bassoons.

The book itself is a curious artifact, not showy in its technology but complex and extremely efficient: a really neat little device, compact, often very pleasant to look at and handle, that can last decades, even centuries.

It was pleasant, too, to fling wide the windows, pinching the fingers in unfamiliar fastenings, to lean out into sunshine with beautiful hills and trees and marble churches opposite, and, close below, Arno, gurgling against the embankment of the road.

Luxury is the income tax of vanity. But it is so pleasant.

Nothing could be more pleasant than to live in solitude, enjoy the spectacle of nature, and occasionally read some book.

The beauty of the morning and the radiance of noon are good, but it would be a very silly person who drew the curtains and turned on the light in order to shut out the tranquillity of the evening. Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.

The world is not the most pleasant place. Eventually, your parents leave you and nobody is going to go out of their way to protect you unconditionally.

In Bali life is a rhythmic, patterned unreality of pleasant, significant movement, centered in one’s own body to which all emotions long ago withdrew.