Everything foreign is respected, partly because it comes from afar, partly because it is ready made and perfect.

The great art of giving consists in this the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.

Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself, though even there he will have to put up with himself.

There is no wilderness like a life without friends; friendship multiplies blessings and minimizes misfortunes; it is a unique remedy against adversity, and it soothes the soul.

Know what is evil, no matter how worshipped it may be. Let the man of sense not mistake it, even when clothed in brocade, or at times crowned in gold, because it cannot thereby hide its hypocrisy, for slavery does not lose its infamy, however noble the master.

A prudent man will think more important what fate has conceded to him, than what it has denied.

It is impossible to live without brains, either one's own or borrowed.