If wisdom were offered me with this restriction, that I should keep it close and not communicate it, I would refuse the gift.
Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them. It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams.
Those whom fortune has never favored are more joyful than those whom she has deserted.
If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him. Ignoranti quem portum petat, nullus suus ventus est.
What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.
Nature ever provides for her own exigencies.
Nature does not turn out her work according to a single pattern; she prides herself upon her power of variation...
Nature does not reveal all her secrets at once. We imagine we are initiated in her mysteries: we are, as yet, but hanging around her outer courts.
Never to wrong others takes one a long way towards peace of mind.
Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.
True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.
Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.
No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself.
The first proof of a well-ordered mind is to be able to pause and linger within itself.
It is another’s fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.
You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.
All things are cause for either laughter or weeping.
When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Diligence is a very great help even to a mediocre intelligence. -Diligentia maximum etiam mediocris ingeni subsidium.
The whole duty of man is embraced in the two principles of abstinence and patience: temperance in prosperity, and patient courage in adversity.