Necessity is the mother of invention.
Misfortune tests the sincerity of friendship.
I can’t be friends with a man who blows hot and cold with the same breath.
Servants don’t know a good master till they have served a worse.
Every man carries two bags about him, one in front and one behind, and both are full of faults. The bag in front contains his neighbors’ faults, the one behind his own. Hence it is that men do not see their own faults, but never fail to see those of others.
United you will be more than a match for your enemies. But if you quarrel and separate, your weakness will put you at the mercy of those who attack you.
Lay not the blame on me, O sailor, but on the winds. By nature I am as calm and safe as the land itself, but the winds fall upon me with their gusts and gales, and lash me into a fury that is not natural to me.
Better poverty without a care than wealth with its many obligations.
I don’t mind having to die now, for I see that he is the cause of my death is about to share the same fate.
Do not waste your pity on a scamp.
The Sun is bad enough even while he is single, drying up our marshes with his heat as he does. But what will become of us if he marries and and begets other suns?
Better be wise by the misfortunes of others than by your own.
The grateful heart will always find opportunities to show its gratitude.
Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either.
A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy. Let a man be one thing or the other, and we then know how to meet him.