Though the ancients were ignorant of the principles of Christianity there were in them the germs of its spirit. The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces

Pain is a coward. He flees when faced by the irresistible power of the will-to-live, which is more strongly rooted in the flesh than the intensest passion is rooted in the spirit. Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman

“Is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavouring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?” Republic

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt. The Art Of War