As in the case of painters, who have undertaken to give us a beautiful and graceful figure, which may have some slight blemishes, we do not wish then to pass over such blemishes altogether, nor yet to mark them too prominently. The one would spoil the beauty, and the other destroy the likeness of the picture.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.

Man is neither by birth nor disposition a savage, nor of unsocial habits, but only becomes so by indulging in vices contrary to his nature.

Justice makes the life of such as are in prosperity, power and authority the life of a god, and injustice turns it to that of a beast.

He who owns a hundred sheep must fight with fifty wolves

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

Poverty is dishonorable, not in itself, but when it is a proof of laziness, intemperance, luxury, and carelessness; whereas in a person that is temperate, industrious, just and valiant, and who uses all his virtues for the public good, it shows a great and lofty mind.