Do people conform to the instructions of us old ones? Each thinks he must know best about himself, and thus many are lost entirely.

Our virtues and view spring from one root.

To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.

It is opposition that makes us productive.

It is only necessary to grow old to become more charitable and even indulgent. I see no fault committed by others that I have not committed myself.

Courage and modesty are the most unequivocal of virtues, for they are of a kind that hypocrisy cannot imitate; they too have this quality in common, that they are expressed by the same color.

Reason looks at necessity as the basis of the world; reason is able to turn chance in your favor and use it. Only by having reasonremain strong and unshakable can we be called a god of the earth.