Illness strikes men when they are exposed to change.

If anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the set of beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably—after careful considerations of their relative merits—choose that of his own country. Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the religion he was brought up in, to be the best.

Some give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.

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.

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

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

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.