The present offers itself to our touch for only an instant of time and then eludes the senses.

The new king [Alexander the Great] should perform acts so important and glorious as would make the poets and musicians of future ages labour and sweat to describe and celebrate him.

Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life as a mind free from guilt and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes that are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted but also undisturbed. The fountain will run clear and unsullied.

Instead of using medicine, better fast today.

Education and study, and the favors of the muses, confer no greater benefit on those that seek them than these humanizing and civilizing lessons, which teach our natural qualities to submit to the limitations prescribed by reason, and to avoid the wildness of extremes.

It is wise to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though never so well.

Poverty is not dishonorable in itself, but only when it comes from idleness, intemperance, extravagance, and folly.