You are young. No hungry generations tread you down.... The past does not mock you with the ruins of a beauty the secret of whose creation you have lost...
The gods are strange. It is not our vices only they make instruments to scourge us. They bring us to ruin through what in us is good, gentle, humane, loving.
Good intentions have been the ruin of the world. The only people who have achieved anything have been those who have had no intentions at all.
Crying is the refuge of plain women but the ruin of pretty ones.