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.

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul.

Let war yield to peace, laurels to paeans.

You might as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life: for the immortal gods have given us nothing better or more delightful.

The administration of government, like a guardianship ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust.

It is not easy to distinguish between true and false affection, unless there occur one of those crises in which, as gold is tried by fire, so a faithful friendship may be tested by danger.

We must conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.