Poverty in a democracy is as much to be preferred to what is called prosperity under despots, as freedom is to slavery.

The brave man is not only he who overcomes the enemy, but he who is stronger than pleasures. Some men are masters of cities, but are enslaved to women.

The first principles of the universe are atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought to exist.

Moving in space, the atoms originally were individual units, but inevitable they began to collide with each other, and in cases where their shapes were such as to permit them to interlock, they began to form clusters. Water, air, fire, and earth, these are simply different clusters of the changeless atoms.

Raising children is an uncertain thing; success is reached only after a life of battle and worry.

It is greed to do all the talking but not to want to listen at all.

Magnanimity consists in enduring tactlessness with mildness.