A Spartan woman, as she handed her son his shield, exhorted him saying, "As a warrior of Sparta come back with your shield or on it."

Were it only to learn benevolence to humankind, we should be merciful to other creatures.

He is a fool who leaves things close at hand to follow what is out of reach.

Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.

It is easy to utter what has been kept silent, but impossible to recall what has been uttered.

The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species, and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain.

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.