“In order to forget my own times I have constantly tried to place myself in spirit in other ages, and so I delighted in history.”

Original: Ut me ipsum temporibus meis subducerem, semper animo in alia secula transferre conatus sum, ideoque historiis delectatus sum. — Reading as a deliberate escape from one's century. · Letter to Posterity (Posteritati) (Latin)

• History
• Imagination
• Time

“Five enemies of peace live with us: avarice, ambition, envy, anger and pride; if these were banished, we should enjoy perpetual peace.”

Original: Quinque pacis hostes nobiscum habitant: avaritia, ambitio, invidia, ira et superbia; his exactis perpetua pace frueremur. — Peace is framed as an inner expulsion of the passions rather than a political settlement. · Widely attributed from De remediis utriusque fortunae (Latin)

• Anger
• Peace
• Pride

“Our own age has always repelled me, so that, but for the love of those dear to me, I should have preferred to have been born in any other time than our own.”

Original: Nostra aetas me semper offendit, adeo ut, nisi me carorum amor retinuisset, qualibet alia nasci maluerim quam hac. — The classic humanist preference for antiquity over the present. · Letter to Posterity (Posteritati) (Latin)

• Exile
• Past
• Time