A man should swallow a toad every morning to be sure of not meeting with anything more revolting in the day ahead.
Receive, dear friend, the truths I teach, So shalt thou live beyond the reach Of adverse Fortune's pow'r; Not always tempt the distant deep, Nor always timorously creep Along the treach'rous shore.
Men see things late, and it may be that at times an evil fate drives them on.
Courage leads to heaven; fear leads to death.
The mystery of existence is the connection between our faults and our misfortunes.
I needed to understand this random bad bit of luck as part of a bigger design. Otherwise I was suffering meaninglessly. This made the suffering a lot worse.
When a man takes the road to destruction, the gods help him along.
They could do worse, and they undoubtedly will.
Broadly speaking, we are in the middle of a race between human skill as a means and human folly as an end.
This day's black fate on more days doth depend; This but begins the woe, others must end.
Alas! how easily things go wrong!
The blackest ink of fate are sure my lot, And when fate writ my name it made a blot.