Regard as your most faithful friends, not those who praise everything you say or do, but those who criticize your mistakes.

Be gracious to all men, but choose the best to be your friends.

Spend your leisure time in cultivating an ear attentive to discourse, for in this way you will find that you learn with ease what others have found out with difficulty.

Always when you are about to say anything, first weigh it in your mind; for with many the tongue outruns the thought.

Consider that nothing in human life is stable; for then you will not exult overmuch in prosperity, nor grieve overmuch in adversity. Rejoice over the good things which come to you, but grieve in moderation over the evils which befall you.

Of all our possessions, wisdom alone is immortal.

Regard as your most faithful friends, not those who praise everything you say or do, but those who criticize your mistakes.