A strict belief in fate is the worst of slavery, imposing upon our necks an everlasting lord and tyrant, whom we are to stand in awe of night and day.

The honor paid to a wise man is a great good for those who honor him.

When we exist, death is not yet present, and when death is present, then we do not exist.

All other love is extinguished by self-love; beneficence, humanity, justice, philosophy, sink under it.

There is no such thing as justice in the abstract; it is merely a compact between men in their various relations with each other, in whatever circumstances they may be, that they will neither injure nor be injured.

Riches do not exhilarate us so much with their possession as they torment us with their loss.

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