Nothing great is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is. If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time: let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen.

In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.

Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.

Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself.

You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.

We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout.

It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance