“It is only natural, of course, that each man should think his own opinions best: the crow loves his fledgling, and the ape his cub.”

For men use, if they have an evil turn, to write it in marble; and whoso doth us a good turn we write it in dust.

You wouldn’t abandon ship in a storm just because you couldn’t control the winds.

Every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence.

Occupy your mind with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with bad ones.

Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich – for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?

The servant may not look to be in better case than his master.

By confronting us with irreducible mysteries that stretch our daily vision to include infinity, nature opens an inviting and guiding path toward a spiritual life.

Food is an implement of magic, and only the most coldhearted rationalist could squeeze the juices of life out of it and make it bland. In a true sense, a cookbook is the best source of psychological advice and the kitchen the first choice of room for a therapy of the world.

I die the king’s faithful servant, but God’s first.

Howbeit, this one thing, son, I assure you on my faith, that if the parties will at hands call for justice, then, all were it my father stood on the one side, and the devil on the other, his cause being good, the devil should have right.

If the lion knew his own strength, hard were it for any man to rule him.

They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.

Rose! Thou art the sweetest flower that ever drank the amber shower: Even the Gods, who walk the sky, are amourous of thy scented sigh.

Because the soul has such deep roots in personal and social life and its values run so contrary to modern concerns, caring for the soul may well turn out to be a radical act, a challenge to accepted norms.

If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable.

A drowning man will clutch at a straw.