Ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.
There is never the body of a man, how strong and stout soever, if it be troubled and inflamed, but will take more harm and offense by wine being poured into it.
Grief is natural; the absence of all feeling is undesirable, but moderation in grief should be observed, as in the face of all good or evil.
Immoderate grief is selfish, harmful, brings no advantage to either the mourner or the mourned, and dishonors the dead.
I have heard that Tiberius used to say that that man was ridiculous, who after sixth years, appealed to a physician.
A remorseful change of mind renders even a noble action base, whereas the determination which is grounded on knowledge and reason cannot change even if its actions fail.
He who first called money the sinews of the state seems to have said this with special reference to war.
Why does pouring Oil on the Sea make it Clear and Calm? Is it that the winds, slipping the smooth oil, have no force, nor cause any waves?
Wickedness is a wonderfully diligent architect of misery, of shame, accompanied with terror, and commotion, and remorse, and endless perturbation.
It is no flattery to give a friend a due character; for commendation is as much the duty of a friend as reprehension.
The usual disease of princes, grasping covetousness, had made them suspicious and quarrelsome neighbors.
It is the usual consolation of the envious, if they cannot maintain their superiority, to represent those by whom they are surpassed as inferior to some one else.
Poverty is not dishonorable in itself, but only when it comes from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.
Water and our necessary food are the only things that wise men must fight for.
Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.
Nor is drunkenness censured for anything so much as its intemperate and endless talk.
Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion.
The crowns of kings do not prevent those who wear them from being tormented sometimes by violent headaches.
What most of all enables a man to serve the public is not wealth, but content and independence; which, requiring no superfluity at home, distracts not the mind from the common good.
Speech is like cloth of Arras opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; whereas in thoughts they lie but as packs.