I follow nature as the surest guide, and resign myself with implicit obedience to her sacred ordinances.

Friendship is nothing else than an accord in all things, human and divine, conjoined with mutual goodwill and affection.

Before beginning, prepare carefully.

The men who administer public affairs must first of all see that everyone holds onto what is his, and that private men are never deprived of their goods by public men.

In fact the whole passion ordinarily termed love (and heaven help me if I can think of any other term to apply to it) is of such exceeding triviality that I see nothing that I think comparable with it.

How do our philosophers act? Do they not inscribe their signatures to the very essays they write on the propriety of despising glory.

All the arts, which have a tendency to raise man in the scale of being, have a certain common band of union, and are connected, if I may be allowed to say so, by blood-relationship with one another.