A man calumniated is doubly injured -- first by him who utters the calumny, and then by him who believes it.

For of those [cities] that were great in earlier times, most of them have now become small, while those which were great in my time were small formerly.

Dreams in general take their rise from those incidents which have most occupied the thoughts during the day.

Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have laid dormant in its absence.

The worst pain a man can have is to know much and be impotent to act.

Calumny is a monstrous vice: for, where parties indulge in it, there are always two that are actively engaged in doing wrong, and one who is subject to injury. The calumniator inflicts wrong by slandering the absent; he who gives credit to the calumny before he has investigated the truth is equally implicated. The person traduced is doubly injured--first by him who propagates, and secondly by him who credits the calumny.

The man who has planned badly, if fortune is on his side, may have had a stroke of luck; but his plan was a bad one nonetheless.