I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.

If you wish to make Pythocles rich, do not add to his store of money, but subtract from his desires.

He who understands the limits of life knows that it is easy to obtain that which removes the pain of want and makes the whole of life complete and perfect. Thus he has no longer any need of things which involve struggle.

There is no such thing as justice or injustice among those beasts that cannot make agreements not to injure or be injured. This is also true of those tribes that are unable or unwilling to make agreements not to injure or be injured.

Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.

We begin every act of choice and avoidance from pleasure, and it is to pleasure that we return using our experience of pleasure as the criterion of every good thing.