The authors of great evils know best how to remove them.

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

For there is no virtue, the honour and credit for which procures a man more odium from the elite than that of justice; and this, because more than any other, it acquires a man power and authority among the common people. For they only honour the valiant and admire the wise, while in addition they also love just men, and put entire trust and confidence in them.

For it was not so much that by means of words I came to a complete understanding of things, as that from things I somehow had an experience which enabled me to follow the meaning of words.

Nothing is harder to direct than a man in prosperity; nothing more easily managed that one is adversity.

What most of all enables a man to serve the public is not wealth, but content and independence; which, requiring no superfluity at home, distracts not the mind from the common good.

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