Let us, therefore, no more excuse ourselves upon the external qualities of things; it belongs to us to give ourselves an account of them.

Our good or ill has no other dependence but on ourselves.

'Tis there that our offerings and our vows are due, and not to fortune she has no power over our manners; on the contrary, they draw and make her follow in their train, and cast her in their own mould.

Why should not I judge of Alexander at table, ranting and drinking at the prodigious rate he sometimes used to do?
Or, if he played at chess?
what string of his soul was not touched by this idle and childish game?
I hate and avoid it, because it is not play enough, that it is too grave and serious a diversion, and I am ashamed to lay out as much thought and study upon it as would serve to much better uses.

He did not more pump his brains about his glorious expedition into the Indies, nor than another in unravelling a passage upon which depends the safety of mankind.