Lampis the ship owner, on being asked how he acquired his great wealth, replied, My great wealth was acquired with no difficulty, but my small wealth, my first gains, with much labor.

When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please.

It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.

You will do the greatest service to the state if you shall raise, not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses rather than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.

It is difficulties that show what men are.

To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man.