Necessity gives the law and does not itself receive it.
A great fortune enslaves its owner.
That man has the fewest wants who is the least anxious for wealth.
A kindness spontaneously offered to him who needs it, is doubly gratifying.
Suspicion is ever strong on the suffering side.
The things which belong to others please us more, and that which is ours, is more pleasing to others.
The bow too tensely strung is easily broken.
He knows not when to be silent who knows not when to speak.
A bad man becomes worse when he apes a saint.
Every one excels in something in which another fails.
In every enterprise consider where you would come out.
Vices that are familiar we pardon, and only new ones reprehend.
There is more of fear than delight in a secret pleasure.
The wise man guards against the future as if it were the present.
To-day is the pupil of yesterday.
He is truly wise who gains wisdom from another’s mishap.
A small loan makes a debt; a great one an enemy.
He bids fair to grow wise who has discovered that he is not so.
They who plough the sea do not carry the winds in their hands.
Mighty rivers can easily be leaped at their source.