The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. The function of muscle is to pull and not to push, except in the case of the genitals and the tongue. As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself. Our life is made by the death of others. Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light to darkness. Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience. Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active. Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment. Just as eating contrary to the inclination is injurious to the health, so study without desire sports the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in. |