There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.
What progress have I made? I am beginning to be my own friend. That is progress indeed.
Everyone rushes his life on, and suffers from a yearning for the future and a boredom with the present. But that man who devotes every hour to his own needs, who plans every day as if it were his last, neither longs for nor fears tomorrow.
It is the property of a great and good mind to covet, not the fruit of good deeds, but good deeds themselves, and to seek for a good man even after having met with bad men.
The book-keeping of benefits is simple: it is all expenditure; if any one returns it, that is clear gain; if he does not return it, it is not lost, I gave it for the sake of giving.
The worst thing about getting old is evil men cease to fear you.
The mind makes the nobleman, and uplifts the lowly to high degree.
Something that can never be learnt too thoroughly can never be said too often.
What you think is the summit is only a step up.
No man finds it difficult to return to nature except the man who has deserted nature.
Reason wishes that the judgement it gives be just; anger wishes that the judgement it has given seem to be just.
The entire world would perish, if pity were not to limit anger.
Hesitation is the best cure for anger. The first blows of anger are heavy, but if it waits, it will think again.
Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art.
The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.
Whatever begins, also ends.
Nemo tam divos habuit faventes, Crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri. Nobody has ever found the gods so much his friends that he can promise himself another day.
Nullum ad nocendum tempus angustum est malis. No time is too short for the wicked to injure their neighbors.
The swiftness of time is infinite, as is still more evident when we look back on the past.
The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depend upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance, and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.