The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong

Virtue is its own reward.

The long time to come when I shall not exist has more effect on me than this short present time, which nevertheless seems endless.

A person who is wise does nothing against their will, nothing with sighing or under coercion.

A friend is, as it were, a second self.

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.

Would that I could discover truth as easily as I can uncover falsehood.