Desire is the essence of a man.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

If a man had begun to hate an object of his love, so that love is thoroughly destroyed, he will, causes being equal, regard it with more hatred than if he had never loved it, and his hatred will be in proportion to the strength of his former love.

Only that thing is free which exists by the necessities of its own nature, and is determined in its actions by itself alone.

Better that right counsels be known to enemies than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; and as they plot against the enemy in time of war, so do they against the citizens in time of peace.

When a man is prey to his emotions, he is not his own master.

Ceremonies are no aid to blessedness.