The wise man knows of all things, as far as possible, although he has no knowledge of each of them in detail

We should aim rather at leveling down our desires than leveling up our means.

The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances.

If thinking is like perceiving, it must be either a process in which the soul is acted upon by what is capable of being thought, or a process different from but analogous to that. The thinking part of the soul must therefore be, while impassable, capable of receiving the form of an object; that is, must be potentially identical in character with its object without being the object. Mind must be related to what is thinkable, as sense is to what is sensible.

That which is impossible and probable is better than that which is possible and improbable.

The citizens begin by giving up some part of the constitution, and so with greater ease the government change something else which is a little more important, until they have undermined the whole fabric of the state.

The least initial deviation from the truth is multiplied later a thousandfold.