The renown which riches or beauty confer is fleeting and frail mental excellence is a splendid and lasting possession.

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.

It is the nature of ambition to make men liars and cheats, to hide the truth in their breasts, and show, like jugglers, another thing in their mouths, to cut all friendships and enmities to the measure of their own interest, and to make a good countenance without the help of good will.

The fame that goes with wealth and beauty is fleeting and fragile; intellectual superiority is a possession glorious and eternal.

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

Each man the architect of his own fate.

It is a law of human nature that in victory even the coward may boast of his prowess, while defeat injures the reputation even of the brave.