The easy, gentle, and sloping path . . . is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

If I am to serve as an instrument of deceit, at least let it be with a clear conscience. I do not want to be considered either so affectionate or so loyal a servant as to be found fit to betray anyone.

Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country.

I will follow the right side even to the fire, but excluding the fire if I can.

Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.

When a Roman was returning from a trip, he used to send someone ahead to let his wife know, so as not to surprise her in the act.

The most beautiful lives, to my mind, are those that conform to the common human pattern, with order, but without miracle and without eccentricity.