O Time, consumer of all things! O envious age, thou destroyest all things and devourest all things with the hard teeth of the years little by little, in slow death. Helen, when she looked in her mirror and saw the withered wrinkles which old age had made in her face wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away.

Quelli che s’innamorano della pratica senza la scienza, sono come i nocchieri che entrano in naviglio senza timone o bussola, che mai hanno certezza dove si vadano. Sempre la pratica dev’essere edificata sopra la buona teorica, della quale la prospettiva è guida e porta, e senza questa nulla si fa bene.

Having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern ... Two contrary emotions arose in me: fear and desire — fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there were any marvelous things in it.