One's virtue is all that one truly has, because it is not imperiled by the vicissitudes of fortune.

One's virtue is all that one truly has, because it is not imperiled by the vicissitudes of fortune.

Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.

No man can ever be secure until he has been forsaken by Fortune.

It's my belief that history is a wheel. 'Inconstancy is my very essence,'? says the wheel. Rise up on my spokes if you like but don't complain when you're cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it's also our hope. The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away.

Good men seek it by the natural means of the virtues; evil men, however, try to achieve the same goal by a variety of concupiscences, and that is surely an unnatural way of seeking the good. Don't you agree?

He who has calmly reconciled his life to fate, and set proud death beneath his feet, can look fortune in the face, unbending both to good and bad; his countenance unconquered.