In battle it is the cowards who run the most risk; bravery is a rampart of defense.

For harmony makes small states great, while discord undermines the mightiest empires.

Everything destroyed is either resolved into the elements from which it came, or else vanishes into not-being. If things are resolved into the elements from which they came, then there will be others: else how did they come into being at all?

To have the same likes and dislikes, therein consists the firmest bond of friendship.

Everything that rises sets, and everything that grows, grows old.

If fortune makes a wicked man prosperous and a good man poor, there is no need to wonder. For the wicked regard wealth as everything, the good as nothing. And the good fortune of the bad cannot take away their badness, while virtue alone will be enough for the good.

Advise well before you begin, and when you have maturely considered, then act with promptitude.