Now in regard to trades and other means of livelihood, which ones are to be considered becoming to a gentleman and which ones are vulgar, we have been taught, in general, as follows. First, those means of livelihood are rejected as undesirable which incur people's ill-will, as those of tax-gatherers and usurers. Unbecoming to a gentleman, too, and vulgar are the means of livelihood of all hired workmen whom we pay for mere manual labour, not for artistic skill; for in their case the very wage they receive is a pledge of their slavery.

Let the force of arms give place to law and justice.

It is of no avail to know what is about to happen; for it is a sad thing to be grieved when grief can do no good.

The greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

After victory, you have more enemies.

It is the soul itself which sees and hears, and not those parts which are, as it were, but windows to the soul.