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.

Music, to create harmony, must investigate discord.

The flatterer's object is to please in everything he does; whereas the true friend always does what is right, and so often gives pleasure, often pain, not wishing the latter, but not shunning it either, if he deems it best.

An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

There is no debt with so much prejudice put off as that of justice.

The usual disease of princes, grasping covetousness, had made them suspicious and quarrelsome neighbors.

In human life there is constant change of fortune; and it is unreasonable to expect an exemption from the common fate. Life itself decays, and all things are daily changing.