The true friend of the people should see that they be not too poor, for extreme poverty lowers the character of the democracy.

A likely impossibility is always preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

To leave the number of births unrestricted, as is done in most states, inevitably causes poverty among the citizens, and poverty produces crime and faction.

There are branches of learning and education which we must study merely with a view to leisure spent in intellectual activity, and these are to be valued for their own sake; whereas those kinds of knowledge which are useful in business are to be deemed necessary, and exist for the sake of other things.

Great and frequent reverses can crush and mar our bliss both by the pain they cause and by the hindrance they offer to many activities. Yet nevertheless even in adversity nobility shines through, when a man endures repeated and severe misfortune with patience, not owing to insensibility but from generosity and greatness of soul.

The difference between a learned man and an ignorant one is the same as that between a living man and a corpse.

Happiness belongs to the self sufficient.