By numberless examples it will evidently appear that human affairs are as subject to change and fluctuation as the waters of the sea agitated by the winds.

Be careful how you do one man a pleasure which must needs occasion equal displeasure in another. For he who is thus slighted will not forget, but will think the offence to himself the greater in that another profits by it; while he who receives the pleasure will either not remember it, or will consider the favour done him less than it really was.

...be more guided by hope than fear.

Let no one trust so entirely to natural prudence as to persuade himself that it will suffice to guide him without help from experience.

Experience has always shown, and reason also, that affairs which depend on many seldom succeed.

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.

He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set; on the contrary, he who imitates what is good always falls short.