Remember our words, then, and whatever is your aim let virtue be the condition of the attainment of your aim, and know that without this all possessions and pursuits are dishonourable and evil.

Man is a biped without feathers.

The cause of all the blunders committed by man arises from this excessive self-love. For the lover is blinded by the object loved; so that he passes a wrong judgment on what is just, good and beautiful, thinking that he ought always to honor what belongs to himself in preference to truth. For he who intends to be a great man ought to love neither himself nor his own things, but only what is just, whether it happens to be done by himself, or by another.

Hereditary honors are a noble and a splendid treasure to descendants.

Then not only custom, but also nature affirms that to do is more disgraceful than to suffer injustice, and that justice is equality.

To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when he might have the less.

There is a ... matter - much more valuable and divine than natural philosophy . ... On this matter I must speak to you in enigmas.