"Methinks that we have known some former state More glorious than our present; and the heart Is haunted by dim memories—shadows left By past felicity."

"... what is life. A gulf of troubled waters—where the soul, Like a vexed bark, is tossed upon the waves, Of pain and pleasure, by the wavering breath Of passions."

"Try not with words the talker to outdo; On all is speech bestowed: good sense on few. (10) Love others so that thou'rt to self a friend; Prefer the good and thus dire harm forfend. (11) On others' promise do not base thine own; Talk doth abound: good faith is rarely shown. (13)"

"When I noticed how very many go seriously wrong in their manner of living I concluded that I must apply a corrective to their belief and take counsel of the experience of mankind in order that they may live most gloriously and attain honor. Now I will teach thee, dearest son, in what way thou mayest fashion a rule for thy life. Therefore, so read my precepts that thou mayest understand them, for to read and not to understand is equivalent to not reading."

"He knew nat Catoun, for his wit was rude, That bad man sholde wedde his similitude."

"Stultitiam simulare loco, prudentia summa est."

"Alienum noli concupiscere."

"Libros lege. Quae legeris memento. Liberos erudi."

"Deo supplica. Parentes ama. Cognatos cole."

"If wealth abounds, when life draws near its end, Be not a stingy, but a generous friend. (9) If from thy wealth and place thou dost descend, Still be content with what the seasons send. (11) For dowry take not to thyself a wife. Nor keep her with thee if she spoils thy life.(12) From others' actions seek to find the clue To what thou best mayst shun and best mayst do. (13) Speak out when wrong thou knowest hath been done, Lest thou thro' silence urge the culprit on. (15)"

"Let not despair o'er ill thy courage take; Not e'en at death doth hope a man forsake. (25) Observe what's past and what may next ensue And Janus-like keep both ways under view. (27) Disdain not, arrogant, what most advise; Thou none canst please while thou dost all despise. (29) Guard well thy health with special care and skill; Thyself and not the seasons blame when ill. (30)"

"To those who are given to virtue, the boast of titles is wholly alien and distasteful."

"There are a precious few whose studies are sound and honest and whose goal is truth and virtue. This is the knowledge of things and the improvement of moral conduct. … As for the others, of whom there is an enormous mass, some seek glory, an insipid, yet gleaming prize. But the majority aims only at the gleam of money, which is not only a rather poor reward, but dirty, and neither equal to the trouble involved, nor worthy of efforts of the mind."

"To seek the truth … and to express something so that it delights the ear is a great thing, hard, troublesome, and, hence, most rare. True poets certainly devote themselves to both these duties. Poets of the more common sort neglect the first and are content with the sonorous phrase."

"Melior sane tutiorque confessio quam professio est. Illa enim humilitatis et penitentie, hec levitatis et insolentie plena est."

"Modo verus amor sit et vera quam ames sapientia, philosophus verus eris."

"Philosophia non sapientiam, sed amorem sapientie pollicetur."

"Sunt certe aliqui sic fallaciis assuefacti, ut longo usu fallendi alios ad extremum et se fallere incipiant quodque diu suasere aliis aliquando persuadeant sibi et quod falsum sciverint verum credant."

"Virtus uno seu potius nullo titulo contenta sibi est titulus."

"Multis ne magistri veri essent magisterii falsum nomen obstitit: dum de se plus omnibus quam sibi dumque quod dicebantur, sed non erant, esse crediderunt, quod esse poterant non fuerunt."

"Everybody is busy writing books. No age has had such an abundance of writers and commentators and such a want of knowledgeable and articulate men. What happens with these books Cicero describes in the same passage: The result is, he says, that such writers read their own books themselves along with their own circle, and none of them reaches any wider public than that which wishes to have the same privilege of scribbling extended to itself. This was unusual in Cicero’s time, but now it is a common practice. Everybody engages in it, because everybody, of course, wants the same privilege. Thus they encourage and admonish each other, scribbling foolishness, praising it, and grabbing for the praise of others who themselves are falsely praised."

"If you want glory from your books, you must … not just have them but know them; not place them in your library but in your memory; and lock them in your mind and not in your bookcase."

"A large number of books keep many from learning."

"Sunt qui quicquid in libris scriptum domi habent nosse sibi videantur cumque ulla de re mentio incidit, “hic liber” inquiunt “in armario meo est”: hoc tantum idque sufficere opinantes, quasi simul in pectore sit, elato supercilio conticescunt. Ridiculum genus!"

"Do you remember Seneca’s Sabinus boasting about the talents of his slaves? … Both of you boast about that which belongs to someone else: he about his slaves … and you about the knowledge in your books which is not your own."

"Itaque sapiens non copiam, sed sufficientiam rerum vult; illa enim sepe pestilens, hec semper est utilis."

"Ut stomachis sic ingeniis nausea sepius nocuit quam fames."

"Hiding places there are innumerable, escape is only one, but possibilities for escape, again, are as many as hiding places. There is a goal, but no way; what we call a way is hesitation."

"From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you."

"Leopards break into the temple and drink to the dregs what is in the sacrificial pitchers; this is repeated over and over again; finally it can be calculated in advance, and it becomes a part of the ceremony."

"If it had been possible to build the Tower of Babel without climbing it, it would have been permitted."

"A cage went in search of a bird."

"One of the first signs of the beginnings of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one will only in time come to hate."

"To animalise is humane, to humanise is animal."

"The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened."

"Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached."

"Es gibt zwei menschliche Hauptsünden, aus welchen sich alle andern ableiten: Ungeduld und Lässigkeit."

"All human errors are impatience, the premature breaking off of what is methodical, an apparent fencing in of the apparent thing."

"Alle menschlichen Fehler sind Ungeduld, ein vorzeitiges Abbrechen des Methodischen, ein scheinbares Einpfählen der scheinbaren Sache."

"The true way is along a rope that is not spanned high in the air, but only just above the ground. It seems intended more to cause stumbling than to be walked upon."

""It cannot be said that we are lacking in faith. Even the simple fact of our life is of a faith-value that can never be exhausted.” “You suggest there is some faith-value in this? One cannot not-live, after all.” “It is precisely in this ‘Cannot, after all’ that the mad strength of faith lies; it is in this negation that it takes on form.” There is no need for you to leave the house. Stay at your table and listen. Don’t even listen, just wait. Don’t even wait, be completely quiet and alone. The world will offer itself to you to be unmasked; it can’t do otherwise; in raptures it will writhe before you."

"Humility provides everyone, even him who despairs in solitude, with the strongest relationship to his fellow man, and this immediately, though, of course, only in the case of complete and permanent humility. It can do this because it is the true language of prayer, at once adoration and the firmest of unions. The relationship to one’s fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one’s striving."

"Du kannst Dich zurückhalten von den Leiden der Welt, das ist Dir freigestellt und entspricht Deiner Natur, aber vielleicht ist gerade dieses Zurückhalten das einzige Leid, das Du vermeiden könntest."

"There can be knowledge of the diabolical, but no belief in it, for more of the diabolical than there is does not exist."

"The first worship of idols was certainly fear of the things in the world, but, connected with this, fear of the necessity of the things, and, connected with this, fear of responsibility for the things. So tremendous did this responsibility appear that people did not even dare to impose it upon one single extra-human entity, for even the mediation of one being would not have sufficiently lightened human responsibility, intercourse with only one being would still have been all too deeply tainted with responsibility, and that is why each thing was given the responsibility for itself, more indeed, these things were also given a degree of responsibility for man."

"Towards the avoidance of a piece of verbal confusion: What is intended to be actively destroyed must first of all have been firmly grasped; what crumbles away crumbles away, but cannot be destroyed."

"Two possibilities: making oneself infinitely small or being so. The second is perfection, that is to say, inactivity, the first is beginning, that is to say, action."

"A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light."

"The whole visible world is perhaps nothing other than a motivation of man’s wish to rest for a moment — an attempt to falsify the fact of knowledge, to try to turn the knowledge into the goal."