It is impossible to live without brains, either one’s own or borrowed.
Treat your enemies with courtesy, and you’ll see how valuable it really is. It costs little but pays a nice dividend: those who honor are honored. Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing.
Deceit comes in through the ears, but usually leaves through the eyes.
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already.
The wise person finds enemies more useful than the fool does friends .
Trust your heart, especially when it is a strong one.
It takes more to make one sage today than it did to make the seven of Greece. And you need more resources to deal with a single person these days than with an entire nation in times past.
For a thing to remain undone nothing more is needed than to think of it done.
Surfeits of happiness are fatal.
Censure is like the lightning which strikes the highest mountains.
No one demands more caution than a spy, and when someone has the skeleton key to minds, counter him by leaving the key of caution inside, on the other side of the keyhole.
There is no need to show your ability before everyone.
To equal a predecessor, one must have twice they worth.
Be known for pleasing others, especially if you govern them. Ruling other has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else.
One should cultivate good habits of memory, for it is capable of making existence a Paradise or an Inferno.
A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens a truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself.
Many have had their greatness made for them by their enemies.
Not he that adorns but he that adores makes a divinity.
Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.