Cultivate those who can teach you.

There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing.

Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one.

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can’t be good, be careful.

A bad manner spoils everything, even reason and justice; a good one supplies everything, gilds a No, sweetens a truth, and adds a touch of beauty to old age itself.

If there is nothing left to desire, there is everything to fear, an unhappy state of happiness.