Of all the disorders in the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.

When a man's struggle begins within oneself, the man is worth something.

We rich men count our felicity and happiness to lie in these superfluities, and not in those necessary things.

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

I confess myself the greatest coward in the world, for I dare not do an ill thing.

Prosperity has this property, it puffs up narrow Souls, makes them imagine themselves high and mighty, and look down upon the World with Contempt; but a truly noble and resolved Spirit appears greatest in Distress, and then becomes more bright and conspicuous.

Themistocles replied that a man's discourse was like to a rich Persian carpet, the beautiful figures and patterns of which can only be shown by spreading and extending it out; when it is contracted and folded up, they are obscured and lost.