As far as the stars are from the earth, and as different as fire is from water, so much do self-interest and integrity differ.

Poverty fled, she who gives birth to virile men.

The prosperous man does not know whether he is loved.

I have a wife, I have sons: all of them hostages given to fate.

Make us enemies of every people on earth, but save us from civil war.

As great edifices collapse of their own weight, so Heaven sets a similar limit to the growth of prosperous states.

Deep-seated are the wounds of civil brawls.