There is nothing more despicable than an old man who has no other proof than his age to offer of his having lived long in the world.
An age builds up cities: an hour destroys them.
If you don’t know what port you are sailing to, no wind is favourable.
Men learn while they teach.
Humanity is fortunate, because no man is unhappy except by his own fault.
The true felicity of life is to be free from anxieties and pertubations; to understand and do our duties to God and man, and to enjoy the present without any serious dependence on the future.
It is part of the cure to wish to be cured.
Hold fast then to this sound and wholesome rule of life; indulge the body only as far as is needful for health.
The wish for healing has always been half of health.
Whatever we give to the wretched, we lend to fortune.
A benefit consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.
Let him that hath done the good office conceal it; let him that received it disclose it.
It is better to have useless knowledge than to know nothing.
Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.
It is impossible to imagine anything which better becomes a ruler than mercy.
Tota vita nihil aliud quam ad mortem iter est. The whole of life is nothing but a journey to death.
Life, if thou knowest how to use it, is long enough.
The part of life which we really live is short.
If you live according to nature, you never will be poor; if according to the world’s caprice, you will never be rich.
It is a tedious thing to be always beginning life; they live badly who always begin to live.