The beginning, as the proverb says, is half the whole.

A life of wealth and many belongings is only a means to happiness. Honor, power, and success cannot be happiness because they depend on the whims of others, and happiness should be self-contained, complete in itself.

It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit of performing such actions.

Moral qualities are so constituted as to be destroyed by excess and by deficiency . . .

Those who have the command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.

He who has conferred a benefit on anyone from motives of love or honor will feel pain, if he sees that the benefit is received without gratitude.

They should rule who are able to rule best.