"A life entangled with accident is like a wintry torrent, for it is turbulent, and foul with mud, and impassable, and tyrannous, and loud, and brief."
"A soul that dwells with virtue is like a perennial spring; for it is pure, and limpid, and refreshful, and inviting, and serviceable, and rich, and innocent, and uninjurious."
"If you wish to be good? first believe that you are bad."
Compare Matt. ix. 12, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;" John ix. 41, "Now ye say, We see, therefore your sin remaineth;" and 1 John i. 8, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
"It is base for one who sweetens that which he drinks with the gifts of bees, to embitter by vice his reason, which is the gift of God."
"Nothing is meaner than the love of pleasure, the love of gain, and insolence: nothing nobler than high-mindedness, and gentleness, and philanthropy, and doing good."