If one should desire to know whether a kingdom is well governed, if its morals are good or bad, the quality of its music will furnish the answer.

To be truly happy and contented, you must let go of what it means to be happy or content.

If I cannot get men who steer a middle course to associate with, I would far rather have the impetuous and hasty. For the impetuous at any rate assert themselves.

A gentleman considers what is right; the vulgar consider what will pay.

Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.

The man of noble mind seeks to achieve the good in others and not their evil. The little-minded man is the reverse of this.

A hammer shatters glass but it also forges steel.