Why are the bones of great fishes, and oysters and corals and various other shells and sea-snails, found on the high tops of mountains that border the sea, in the same way in which they are found in the depths of the sea?

Do not reveal, if liberty is precious to you; my face is the prison of love.

Happy will be those who give ear to the words of the dead: The reading of good works and the observing of their precepts.

Study me, reader, if you delight in me, because on very few occasions shall I return to the world, and because the patience for this profession is found in very few, and only in those who wish to compose things anew. Come, oh men, to see the miracles that such studies will disclose to nature.

Nothing will be left, Nothing in the air, nothing under the earth, nothing in the waters. All will be exterminated.

Man and animals are in reality vehicles and conduits of food, tombs of animals, hostels of Death, coverings that consume, deriving life by the death of others.

A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Fire destroys falsehood, that is sophistry, and restores truth, driving out darkness.

It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me to interrupt the work and to attend to small matters.

We know well that mistakes are more easily detected in the works of others than in one’s own.