Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
Wise men are able to make a fitting use even of their enmities.
The omission of good is no less reprehensible than the commission of evil.
Words will build no walls.
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.
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.