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.

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.

The secret of success is that it is not the absence of failure, but the absence of envy.

It is the greatest and the tallest of trees that the gods bring low with bolts and thunder. For the gods love to thwart whatever is greater than the rest. They do not suffer pride in anyone but themselves.

We have two useless gods who never leave our island, but like to dwell in it constantly, Poverty and Helplessness.

Happiness is not fame or riches or heroic virtues, but a state that will inspire posterity to think in reflecting upon our life, that it was the life they would wish to live.

Many exceedingly rich men are unhappy, but many middling circumstances are fortunate.