All have the gift of speech, but few are possessed of wisdom.

Should anyone attempt to deceive you by false expressions, and not be a true friend at heart, act in the same manner, and thus art will defeat art. [If you would catch a man let him think he is catching you.]

Consider in silence whatever any one says: speech both conceals and reveals the inner soul of man.

I think the first wisdom is to restrain the tongue.

Some have said that it is not the business of private men to meddle with government--a bold and dishonest saying, which is fit to come from no mouth but that of a tyrant or a slave. To say that private men have nothing to do with government is to say that private men have nothing to do with their own happiness or misery; that people ought not to concern themselves whether they be naked or clothed, fed or starved, deceived or instructed, protected or destroyed.

The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.

Flee sloth; for the indolence of the soul is the decay of the body.