Achal

“There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, howsoever poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance: his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we are called an ass, we are left in doubt.”
― Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson

“And hence it cometh to passe, that it is a hard matter, and by many thought impossible to distinguish exactly between Sense and Dreaming. For my part, when I consider, that in Dreames, I do not often, nor constantly think of the same Persons, Places, Objects, and Actions that I do waking; nor remember so long a trayne of coherent thoughts, Dreaming, as at other times; And because waking I often observe the absurdity of Dreames, but never dream of the absurdities of my waking Thoughts; I am well satisfied, that being awake, I know I dreame not; though when I dreame, I think my selfe awake.”
― Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

“Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas
regumque turres.

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Pale Death kicks in the huts of paupers
just as it does the towers of kings,

(Odes I, 4)”
― Horace

“Concerning the first, there is a saying much usurped of late, That Wisedome is acquired, not by reading of Books, but of Men.”
― Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan