Mankind is like the Red Sea: the staff has scarcely parted the waves asunder, before they flow together again.
Thoughts come back; beliefs persist; facts pass by never to return.
Of all peoples, the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life the best.
We readily bow to antiquity, but not to posterity. It is only a father that does not grudge talent to his son.
There is no virtue in subordinating oneself; but there is virtue in descending, and in recognising anything as above us, which is beneath us.